Honouring 25 years of service

^{Source: Diocese of Nottingham}

A dedicated  volunteer and employee of Nottingham Diocese, who has devoted 25 years of service to the Church, has been recently honoured with a papal award in recognition of all her efforts.

Julie Sweeney, who retired in September after serving the diocese for a quarter of a century, was surprised during a recent diocesan headteachers’ retreat, when Bishop Patrick McKinney presented her with a Benemerenti Medal.

The medal is a papal award which is bestowed on those who have served the Catholic Church in an exceptional way.

Commenting on receiving the award, Julie said she felt completely “flummoxed!” She added: “I find it very hard to get my head around- I’ve only done my job. I know sometimes I will go over and above, but I’ve just been doing what I enjoy and to receive a medal seems surreal. I still can’t grasp it properly!”  

Julie began her years of service to Nottingham Diocese at the McGuinness Centre in Bulwell where she volunteered as a bookkeeper for a counselling service run by Sisters Christianne and Kathleen, while also offering her time helping at her local Catholic school listening to children read.

Following this time, she has worked in a number of voluntary and paid roles including (but not limited to) doing the administration for the 2003 diocesan assembly, as well as for the Association of Catholic Chaplains in Education; Julie has also spent over 20 years working for the Diocesan Education Service based in Mackworth, specialising in school admissions, appeals and governance, in addition to being the Personal Assistant to two consecutive Directors of Education.

She is a wife of 40 years, a mum to four children, a grandmother to 8 grandchildren and also a carer for her mum.

She proudly holds a black belt in Taekwondo and is using her retirement to learn Vietnamese (due to having Vietnamese family members)  and hopes to visit the country before too long. Going forward, she will continue to be involved with our schools as a 'grandparent helper', currently she is on a swimming rota!