THE FORMER head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor attended a Mass held in Kilkenny yesterday evening to thank locally-trained priests for their service in Britain and other parts of the English-speaking world.
The cardinal (77), who was born in England to parents who had emigrated from Co Cork and who trained for the priesthood at the English College in Rome, retired last year as Archbishop of Westminster.
He was invited to address a reunion yesterday of more than 100 priests who had trained in the former seminary at St Kieran’s College who now work in dioceses throughout Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. The seminary at St Kieran’s closed in 1994 but the college in Kilkenny continues to function as a secondary school for boys.
The meeting was private, no script was available and the cardinal declined a request to speak to The Irish Times, although he did agree to pose for a photograph.
Later, the cardinal delivered a homily at a concelebrated Mass of Thanksgiving at St Mary’s Cathedral where the chief celebrant was Bishop of Ossory, Séamus Freeman.
A diocesan spokesman said the Mass, to “officially mark the end of the ‘Year of Priests’ in the Diocese of Ossory”, was an opportunity for the laity “to offer their prayerful support and thanks to the priests”. He said members of the diocesan St Joseph’s Young Priests Society had “a special role in this unique celebration”.
Earlier this year, the cardinal, whose official title is Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster, was one of five senior international clerics appointed by Pope Benedict to undertake an “apostolic visitation” to investigate the Irish Catholic Church’s handling of sexual abuse cases.
The Irish bishops described the apostolic visitation as an opportunity to “build upon the strong procedures and guidelines for the safeguarding of children and to work for a renewal of faith”. Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor was asked to investigate the Archdiocese of Armagh.