The Catholic Chaplain is Fr Richard Duffield
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My name is Father Richard Duffield, the Catholic Chaplain to the University of York. I’m just starting this term, September 2021. So if you’re a fresher I am too, and I'm probably a lot more confused than you. If you're an old hand please be patient with me as I learn new ways! 

When not in More House or around on campus I'm to be found at the Oratory, my religious community in the city. We look after St Wilfrid's in Duncombe Place, near the Minster. We also take care of St Margaret Clitherow's Shrine in the Shambles.
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I grew up in York. My parents began the university bookshop here in the 1960s. That vanished a long time ago. Do students still buy books?

My degree was in English from a university "down south".  I joined the Birmingham Oratory in 1986. After studies in Philosophy and Theology I was ordained in 1992. I'm happy to have my mind stimulated by all of you studying the harder mathematical and scientific stuff.

Before coming back to York in 2013 I worked in Birmingham, Rome and Oxford. I like music (mainly classical) and books, old churches and houses, walking in the Yorkshire countryside, foreign travel - when it's allowed - cooking food and eating it, preferably with a nice bottle of something white or red but I'm sure York students will expand my horizons and my tastes!

University Chaplaincy is a new challenge for me. I'm waiting to see if my previous life - nineteen years as a parish priest and twelve as a chaplain in various prisons - will be relevant experience. I suspect it may!

tel. More House, Main Street, Heslington, 01904 410249      mob. 07931 738921

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