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Maureen Knight died in Aintree University Hospital on 5th February, surrounded by loved ones. Her funeral Mass will be at Our Lady of Walsingham, Netherton, 1.45pm on Friday 23rd February and will be livestreamed at https://vimeo.com/event/4101516/a67b9532fa.
Maureen Anderson grew up in Pansy Street in Kirkdale, in St Alphonsus parish. She married John Knight in 1962 and they have two sons and five grandchildren. In 1966, when their elder son Paul was still a baby, a neighbour asked Maureen to stand in for him one evening to drive children with additional needs to their weekly catechism class. She said no, but then thought better of it and she always described that evening as the moment she discovered her vocation to service. Soon she was leading this Tuesday Club for children with additional needs: a misnomer because there were activities every day of the week for the fifty or so families who were supported by over a hundred volunteers. Many of the families regularly came together for the 4.00pm Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Walsingham, Netherton and for summer holidays and pilgrimages to Lourdes and Maureen was heavily involved in advocacy for their rights.
After the 1980 National Pastoral Congress in Liverpool, the then Fr Vincent Nichols worked with others to bring together the work that had been going on in Adult Christian Education and Marriage and Family Life Ministry in a new Department of Pastoral Formation. Maureen, who was a member of the Marriage and Family Committee from 1980, worked in Pastoral Formation from the day it opened in February 1982 until the day it closed as part of a diocesan restructuring in January 2021. During those thirty-nine years, Maureen worked with six directors and many other colleagues and was involved in hundreds of different projects and initiatives and in the production of resources for formation for a wide variety of ministries. Maureen was a woman of many talents – an efficient administrator and fundraiser, a creative thinker, a powerful motivator and a natural leader – but it was her warmth, generosity and passion, especially for those in any kind of need, that touched the lives of so many people across the archdiocese and beyond.
As the work of the Department evolved, Maureen was always eager to find new ways of addressing real needs, enabling, forming and encouraging others to find their vocation in the life and mission of the Church: in liturgical ministries and spiritual formation; in catechetical and parenting programmes; in marriage preparation and support for those who experience marriage breakdown; in bereavement teams and funeral ministry; in championing the rights of people with disabilities; and in promoting awareness of mental health issues, especially dementia. Hospitality was Maureen’s watchword and she created a sense of community with good food, creative prayer and genuine fun. Her story-telling and Scouse sense of humour brought the faith alive for many people. Graduates of the lay ministry course Servants of the Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s still talk of the difference it made in their life and ministry and point to Maureen as a catalyst for their growth in faith and confidence. In the tributes her friends and family have received Maureen has been described as: a loving friend; a wise mentor; a towering person; a standard bearer for lay formation; loving the Church and changing the Church; the human face of the Archdiocese. As one priest friend wrote, Maureen always wanted to help and she never gave up.
Until just a few weeks ago, though struggling with progressive heart failure and repeated surgeries for melanoma, Maureen continued her voluntary work at the Irenaeus Project, chairing its management committee and organising the ‘food cupboard’ in its drop-in centre.
May she rest in peace and rise in glory.
