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The announcement Bishop of Ossory Dermot Farrell is to be the new Archbishop of Dublin will come as no great surprise to many priests in the archdiocese.
His name has always been among the front runners since Archbishop Diarmuid Martin made clear his intention to retire on reaching 75 last April. He has not done so before now due to the pandemic.
Odds, so to speak, on Bishop Farrell being ‘the man most likely to’ shortened greatly when he was the only bishop to accompany Ireland’s four Catholic Archbishops at their meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin on October 28th last.
He attended the meeting in his role as finance secretary to the Irish Bishops’ Conference, a position he was appointed to in March 2019.
A very competent administrator, this is reflected in his lengthy period as president, vice-president, and executive assistant to the president at St Patrick’s College Maynooth between 1993 and 2007, and in his service on various boards and committees.
These include the Board of Allianz, the Governing Body of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and the Theological Department Irish Inter-Church Committee, and as national director of the Permanent Diaconate. He is currently also chairman of Veritas Communications.
Probably his most uncomfortable period was in 2002 when it emerged in this newspaper that former president at Maynooth Micheál Ledwith was then lecturing with a new-age cult on the US west coast and that in 1994 he had resigned suddenly from the presidency at Maynooth in circumstances then still unexplained by Catholic Church authorities in Ireland.
Bishop Farrell was then president at Maynooth and, in response to a series of questions from this newspaper, he and St Patrick College’s Bishop Trustee issued a statement confirming that, prior to his departure from office, sexual abuse allegations had been made against Msgr Ledwith, which he denied.
It emerged later that Msgr Ledwith had agreed a confidential settlement with his accuser without admission of liability. As a priest of Ferns diocese Msgr Ledwith was also investigated by the Ferns inquiry, which published its report in October 2005.
Due to the confidentiality clause it was unable to make specific findings in the case it did repeat the various abuse allegations against the-then-still Msgr Lediwth, since laicised by the Catholic Church.
In his new role as Archbishop of Dublin Arcbishop-elect Farrell faces a daunting job as half of the priests in its 197 parishes are over 70 with declining Mass attendences and dropping revenues. It is also probably the most secularised Catholic diocese in Ireland.
Speaking at the announcement today, Arcbhishop-elect Farrell said: “From a young age Dublin has always been part of my life. My late mother worked here as young woman. As a teenager, I spent summer holidays with my aunt and uncle who lived and worked in the Liberties. They introduced me to the history and rich cultural life of the City.
“Dublin has always been a place of welcome for people from all over Ireland. Now it is a city of welcome for people from all over the world. [And] the Archdiocese of Dublin is more than the city: its 198 parishes - rural and urban - stretch across Leinster,” he said.
“This presents distinctive challenges and opportunities. The challenges to take account of the new cultural and social contexts in which we find ourselves and in which the gospel is proclaimed. “