A former professor of Religious Education St Mary’s College in Belfast has been appointed by Pope Francis as the new Bishop of Ossory.
On Friday morning, Pope Francis announced that 59-year-old Fr Niall Coll will take up the role in Ossory which has been vacant since the appointment of Archbishop Dermot Farrell to Dublin.
Welcoming the news, Archbishop Farrell who served as Bishop of Ossory between 2018 and 2020 said Fr Coll was undertaking his episcopal ministry in a time of “rapid and profound cultural, social, and ecclesial change”.
The leader of the Irish Church, Archbishop Eamon Martin said the Donegal native brings a wealth of educational expertise, along with strong pastoral instincts, to his new ministry.
“He has a depth of experience of Religious Education and Religious Studies at third level which will be of immense value to our discussions at the table of the Irish Bishops’ Conference,” the Archbishop said.
The announcement was made in the Cathedral of St Mary in Kilkenny this morning where the bishop-elect will be based.
Fr Coll, who was ordained in 1988 for the Diocese of Raphoe, said he was coming to Ossory “at a time of great challenge to faith, a time when Irish society is increasingly secular and individualistic”.
He said the Church had to discern and change in line with Pope Francis’ emphasis on synodality.
Addressing his new flock he told them: “The four-century and more long dominance of the Tridentine pattern has left Catholics almost everywhere unfamiliar with and thus unskilled in discerning and negotiating possibilities for change in church life. But, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, discern and change we must, in line with Pope Francis’ emphasis on the need for synodality.”
A native of Letterkenny, Fr Coll has taught at St Eunan’s College in the Donegal town as well as in Pobalscoil na Rosann, Dungloe. He has lectured at St Patrick’s College, Carlow and was Professor of Religious Studies and Religious Education St Mary’s University College in Belfast from 2001 until 2020 when he was recalled to parish work as a parish priest in Raphoe diocese.
“I am heartbroken to be leaving the parish of Donegal and Clar,” he admitted on Friday.
He said the partition of the island of Ireland was “probably at its deepest in the world of education: different paymasters and different curricula” which meant he had had to acquaint himself with a quite different system of Catholic education between the two jurisdictions in Ireland.
After nearly two decades in education, he returned back to parish life in Donegal in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, first to Ballintra, then Donegal Town and Clar.
“Covid-19 has been hard on people and parishes and, as you know, recovery from it has been slow and we don’t yet have clarity on its full effects. It is likely to cast a long shadow well into the future,” the new bishop said.
During his ministry, Fr Coll conducted retreats for clergy and has contributed to various publications, including Doctrine and Life, The Furrow, the Irish Theological Quarterly and The Tablet. He was also editorial director of the Catholic School ethos journal Le Chéile.
Bishop Alan McGuckian of Raphoe paid tribute to the new bishop, describing him as “a skilled theologian” who had served at third level in both St Patrick’s College Carlow and St Mary’s University College in Belfast.
Since returning to parish work in Donegal, Bishop McGuckian said Fr Coll had served on the Diocesan Pastoral Council and worked closely with priests and people to promote Raphoe’s Pastoral Plan ‘Forward together; Ar aghaidh le chéile’.
“He will be a great loss to the diocese and to the parish of Tawnawilly,” the Bishop of Raphoe said.
Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin, who served as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Ossory for the past twenty-one months welcomed the appointment.
“I have known Niall since our student days together in Maynooth in the 1980s and as such, understand full well his immense abilities, his deep faith and his great energy for theology, pastoral ministry and lay faith formation.”
He said the bishop-elect was known to many in Ossory Diocese, as he had taught some during the course of his years lecturing in systematic theology, and many he had encountered in various settings throughout his ministry.
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