The new Bishop of Ferns has said one of his aims for the diocese is a greater involvement of women in non-ordained ministry.
Speaking to The Tablet at St Aidan’s Cathedral in Enniscorthy, where he was ordained in a ceremony led by Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin, Bishop Ger Nash said: “I would see that as a key part of my work in the future. That was the work I was doing, and I think that was probably why I was asked to do this job. I spent the last three years training 20 women and five men for active non ordained ministry.”
He said his first priority would be to listen to the people of Ferns and learn what their needs are.
The 62-year-old paid tribute to his predecessor, Bishop Denis Brennan, as “a steadying hand in difficult times”. Bishop Brennan announced his retirement in July after 15 years at the helm.
He said Bishop Brennan had helped “to tread a compassionate and healing path for a diocese and people in deep trauma as they dealt with the issues of the past”.
The Diocese of Ferns was rocked by revelations of clerical sexual abuse and its mishandling by church leaders in the 2005 Ferns Report. The report criticised the former bishops of Ferns, Donal Herlihy and Brendan Comiskey, for their failure to deal with allegations made against a number of priests. Bishop Comiskey resigned as bishop on 1 April 2002.
Bishop Nash told the congregation, restricted to just 30 family and friends, he hoped the diocese would become “a refuge of healing and encouragement with space for all who are searching for meaning, especially, as we emerge tentatively from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic”.
He pledged to encourage all “to look forward in hope rather than backward in regret or longing for the past.” His task would be to nurture within Ferns a system which will listen carefully to all voices and create a way of thinking which will recognise “the reality of the world in which we live”.
The Co Clare native signalled that his priorities would be synodality and care for the earth, warning that unless serious and immediate action is taken, “future generations will inherit a destroyed earth”.
In his homily, Fr Billy Swan, Administrator of Wexford Parish, told the new church leader that his call would not be to preside over the building of physical churches, but to build living churches of people with living faith.
He said Bishop Nash would fulfil his ministry “not from on high, but with your feet firmly on the ground”.
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