Clergy

The Parish Priest of St Simon’s is Fr Willy Slavin.  In 2007 he also became Parish Priest of St Peter’s while remaining resident in St Simon’s.   Fr Jim Lawlor is resident in St Peter’s and also assists in St Simon’s.  With Fr Wojciech Swiatkowski of the Society of Christ they have responsibility for the Western Infirmary and the Royal Hospital for Sick Children.  Fr Slavin and Fr Lawlor serve St Peter’s Primary School, Notre Dame Primary School and Notre Dame High School.  Fr Swiatkowski has responsibility for the Polish Diaspora in Glasgow with the Polish Chaplaincy in the Sikorski Club in Park Grove Terrace where the Polish Chaplain, Fr Marian Lekawa, lives.

Fr Slavin was ordained in the Scots College in Rome in 1964 and served in Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Broomhill and St Michael’s, Parkhead before going to Bangladesh for 5 years in 1975.  On his return he served 10 years as chaplain in Barlinnie Prison during which time he helped set up the Scottish Drugs Forum to deal with the problems which were then becoming prominent.  He was parish priest in St Alphonsus in the Barras before he went to Yorkhill in 1997. In 2005 he retired from his work as a psychologist in Notre Dame Child Guidance’s Adolescent Unit (Fern Tower). He is currently chair of Emmaus Glasgow, which is the first Scottish Community of a movement which was started in 1948 in France by the Abbe Pierre. He also serves on the board of Emmaus UK.  In 2007 he was asked by Archbishop Conti to take responsibility also for St Peter’s and facilitate the use of the larger church for the enormous numbers of new Poles overcrowding the little St Simon’s.

Willy is a daily cyclist who celebrated the Millenium by biking from Land’s End to John O’Groats with the Very Rev John Miller in 11 days. He completed the 284 Munros in 2004 and in 2006 climbed the 19 “further munros” in the Lake District, North Wales and Ireland with Sr Margaret Ann Minards.