Islands bishop transferred to Motherwell

Bishop Joseph Toal has been appointed Bishop of Motherwell and has said his first task will be twinning parishes in order to respond to declining numbers of clergy, writes Brian Morton.

Bishop Toal, who previously served as Bishop of Argyll and the Isles, has acted as apostolic administrator of Motherwell Diocese since Bishop Joseph Devine’s resignation a year ago.

He described himself as “anxious and torn” over the prospect of leaving Argyll and the Isles but said that a recent trip to Lourdes with a party of disabled children had “settled” his mind and calmed his concerns.

He said one of his first challenges as bishop would be to deal with the near-certain prospect of a smaller number of clergy in future. “I think sometimes parishes cling on to their separate identity,” he said. “It’s para­doxical, given our faith, but sometimes we simply don’t want to share, but that may be inevitable in future with twinned – I won’t say amalgamated – parishes, and that process may be easier where parishes are within spitting distance of each other, unlike in Argyll.”

Born in Inverness-shire in 1956, Bishop Toal was ordained in 1980 and served as parish priest on South Uist and Benbecula, as well as Campbeltown in Kintyre. He was spiritual director, and subsequently vice rector and rector of the Scots College in Salamanca, and was ordained Bishop of Argyll and the Isles in 2008.

Asked if he had any specific regrets on leaving his old diocese, Bishop Toal said that he had failed to meet good intentions of becoming more proficient in Gaelic. “I missed the boat on that. There were several opportunities, but somehow I never managed to take them. I had plenty of chances when I served as a priest in the isles.”