IRELAND
Irish Times
January 7, 2019
Major change at Catholic Church leadership level in Ireland is imminent as almost a third of the 26 dioceses on the island are scheduled to have new bishops appointed over the next year or two. This is due to incumbents reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
Among the eight dioceses concerned are some of the most influential in the Irish church, including in Dublin, Cork and Galway. Bishop of Cork and Ross John Buckley is already 79, four years past retirement. In Galway Bishop Brendan Kelly will be 73 next May.
But it is in Dublin where the starkest change is likely as its two auxiliary bishops will both be 75 this year: Bishop Ray Field in May and Bishop Eamonn Walsh in September.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will be 74 in April. If precedence is followed he too could be replaced this year by a coadjutor archbishop (with right to succeed) as happened when he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Dublin in 2003, succeeding Cardinal Desmond Connell in 2004.
In Ferns Bishop Denis Brennan will be 75 in June; the dioceses of Achonry, Kilmore, and Dromore remain vacant; and 80-year-old Bishop John Kirby is still on duty in Clonfert.
As the average age of the Irish Catholic priest is 70 (for current Irish bishops it is 66), Church authorities now have an age factor to consider as well as a talent issue when it comes to appointing new bishops from a diminishing pool.
It probably means a further reaching to the religious congregations, as with the appointment of Bishop of Raphoe Alan McGuckian (65) in 2017, the first Jesuit appointed to the Irish Episcopal Conference, and Archbishop of Cashel Kieran O’Reilly (66), a member of the Society of African Missions.
He was appointed Bishop of Killaloe in 2010 and moved to Cashel and Emly in 2015.
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