Bishop ordained in second largest diocese

IRELAND’S second largest Catholic diocese got a new bishop yesterday when Monsignor Noel Treanor was ordained as Bishop of Down and Connor at a special ceremony in St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast.

Sinn Féin MP Gerry Adams attended the ordination following which he said: “Bishop Treanor will face many challenges in the time ahead, but he will have the best wishes of the people of the diocese. I congratulate him on his ordination and wish him well.”

Among the other dignitaries who attended the ceremony were President Mary McAleese, her husband Dr Martin McAleese and the Apostolic Nuncio, Giuseppe Leanza.

Monaghan-born Mon Treanor, 54, has been working in Brussels with the European Bishops’ Commission. He is also a priest of the Clogher diocese.

His new diocese is the second largest in Ireland after Dublin and includes the greater Belfast area.

Mon Treanor has become the 32nd Bishop of Down and Connor and replaces Dr Patrick Walsh, who submitted his resignation to the Pope in 2006 as required on reaching the age of 75.

Primate of All Ireland Cardinal Seán Brady welcomed Monsignor Treanor’s appointment: “For over 30 years, Mgr Treanor has used his great qualities of heart and mind to serve the Church generously and effectively in different assignments in three countries.”

In his address during the ordination, Bishop Treanor said: “The future is an unknown for all of us. Today, and during the weeks and months since my appointment as Bishop-elect of Down and Connor was announced, I have had a keen and betimes slightly disconcerting sense of the immense challenges which lie in store.”