THE RECENTLY deceased former Catholic bishop of Killala Thomas Finnegan was “by nature, a man with vision”, said his successor, Bishop John Fleming, at the late bishop’s funeral Mass yesterday.
The funeral took place at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo. Bishop Finnegan (86) died in Sligo General Hospital on Christmas Day.
Ordained for his native Elphin diocese in 1951 and appointed junior dean at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, in 1960, he began “to open the college to the spirit of Vatican II”, Bishop Fleming recalled. A year after the council closed, he came into his own as president of Summerhill College in Sligo, the bishop said.
Bishop Finnegan “created an atmosphere in the college which has stood the test of time”. He came to be regarded as one of the leading educationalists in Ireland at a time when free secondary education revolutionised education, Bishop Fleming said.
Appointed director of the marriage tribunal in Galway in 1979. “he was able to explore, develop and broaden the criteria for marriage annulments” in “the spirit of canon law rather than its letter”.
As parish priest in Roscommon town from 1982 for five years he delighted in being “back among his own once more and close to the family he loved so dearly”. In his 15 years as bishop of Killala from 1987 “he reformed clergy incomes and devoted endless time and effort to trying to establish a Catholic university for Mayo” and set up the Newman Institute in Ballina, Bishop Fleming said.
He was a founder member of the Council for the West, which later prompted the government to establish the Western Development Commission, Bishop Fleming recalled.
He bade “a fond farewell to a man of vision, to an inspiring leader and a much loved family member, priest and bishop”.
Chief mourners included Bishop Finnegan’s sister-in-law Mary Teresa Finnegan, his nieces Olivia Ward, Leonie Curran, Theola Finnegan, Davona Finnegan and nephews Shane Finnegan and Coleman Hanly.
The Mass was concelebrated by Bishop Fleming, the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary and Bishop of Elphin Christopher Jones. Bishop Finnegan’s remains were interred in the cathedral grounds afterwards.