Meet the Formators
Allen Hall is served by a formation team responsible for the formation of the men from all over the world to serve the Church in England & Wales. This team help the men discern their vocation to the priesthood and support them throughout their years of study.
Canon John O’Leary, Rector
Email: ahrector@rcdow.org.uk
Tel: 0207 349 5627
Born in 1967 of an English mother and Irish father, I am the youngest of six children. The Most Sacred Heart, Ruislip is my home parish. There I was baptised, made my first confession, received Holy Communion for the first time, confirmed and, in 1992, ordained priest by Cardinal Hume. Formation for priesthood took place at Allen Hall and the Venerable English College, Rome. I left Rome with a licentiate in philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Appointments include: assistant priest at Brook Green and Tottenham; assistant chaplain to the universities of London; parish priest of Shepherd’s Bush, Kingsland and Tollington Park; Private Secretary to Cardinal Nichols. Whilst residing at Lincoln’s Inn Parish, I obtained a doctorate from Heythrop College in 2009. From 1999 to 2006 I taught philosophy at Allen Hall as an external lecturer. I became Vice-Rector and Dean of Studies here in 2019, then in 2021, Rector. I still teach philosophy, as well as creation and eschatology at St Mary’s University. I am a West Ham fan. I know the importance, then, of our motto: Vivamus in Spe.
Fr Antonio Ritaccio, Pastoral Formator
Tel: 0207 349 5617
Born in Bedford to Italian parents, I’m the youngest of five siblings. Aspiring to be an artist and teacher, an encounter with the Lord at 16 led me to consider priesthood. At 19, I met the Neocatechumenal Way and was greatly encouraged to respond to the vocational call, leaving behind a Ceramics degree. I found myself among the first four seminarians to open the Westminster Redemptoris Mater House of Formation in 1991, becoming its first ordained priest in 1999. My training has spanned the Philippines and South Africa. Before becoming the Director of Pastoral Formation, I served for 12 years at the Five Precious Wounds Church, Stonebridge. I began at St. Joseph’s, Bishop’s Stortford, then Westminster Cathedral, followed by Diocesan Youth Chaplaincy, overseeing Corpus Christi, Covent Garden. I spent three years amazing years as the parish priest of the Island of Nevis in the Caribbean. Inspired by St. John Paul II, my heart lies with the New Evangelisation, treasuring the daily grace of priesthood.
Fr Anthony Doe, Spiritual Director
Tel: 0207 349 5600
I am a priest of the Archdiocese of Westminster and I was born in Twickenham and grew up in Ruislip, in West London. I received a BA in Classical History at University College, London University, after leaving the Cardinal Vaughan School and then spent three years in the L’Arche Communities in Barfreston Kent and in Ottawa in Canada as an assistant. I then went on to the Venerable English College in Rome to study for the priesthood completing the six year course in Philosophy and Theology with a Licentiate at the Gregorian University in Spiritual Theology. After spending four years in a parish as a curate I then went to the West London Chaplaincy, London University, as a chaplain and after six years working in student ministry I was then asked by the Archbishop at the time, Cardinal Hume, to train as a psychotherapist. I attended the psychoanalytic course at The Association for Group and Individual Psychotherapy in London and qualified professionally as a therapist. I then engaged full time in therapeutic ministry, as well as spiritual direction, while living at the Carmelite Community in Notting Hill in London as resident chaplain. During that time I continued my studies and received an MA at Heythrop College in the Psychology of Religion following it up with a Doctorate, using the post Freudian theorist Donald Winnicott and St John of the Cross to examine the psychological and spiritual interaction taking place in the development of self identity. I maintained my therapeutic practice for seventeen years when I was then appointed to be the Spiritual Director at the Venerable English College in Rome where I ministered for five years. Having returned to London I have now been here at Allen Hall as Spiritual Director where I am now in my fourth year.
Fr Brian O’Mahoney – Dean of Studies
My working life was in the hospitality industry in various hotel supervisory and management roles. Although I travelled back to the UK initially for only a year, when working in London I responded to a call that had been distilling in me for quite a few years and applied to train for Westminster. Allen Hall was then my home for six years of initial formation.
Ordained in 2014, I am a Priest of Westminster diocese. I was born in Sutton in 1978; the fourth of five children. My childhood was in a variety of places including the Wirral and Portsmouth. Emigrating to Australia at twelve, my teenage and young adult years were spent in Brisbane. Post-school I received a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of Queensland, completing a post-graduate year in International Relations specialising in the politics of Maritime South-East Asia.
Three years after ordination in 2014 brought further studies in Rome, with a Pontifical Licentiate from the Gregorian University in Fundamental Theology. Back in the diocese I had two very happy (though COVID-affected) years as Parish Priest in Northwood. Four years at Westminster Cathedral as the Sub-Dean then followed. For five years I have been teaching at Allen Hall part-time, with an interest in Vatican II. I have taken up the role of Dean of Studies this Academic Year, and it is a distinct privilege to be part of the formation of new priests; an endeavour that needs our prayers.
‘Be a preacher of the Gospel, a teacher of the Catholic faith, a faithful celebrant of the sacraments ‘as the Church hands them down’.’