New Bishop of Galway acknowledges ‘many parishes are struggling’

Past infrastructures, systems and pastoral practices that were beneficial to the Catholic Church in the past ‘now hinder rather than help the life of faith’, the new Bishop of Galway told the congregation at his installation ceremony on Sunday.

Bishop Michael Duignan – who is now in charge of both the Galway and Clonfert dioceses – in his homily on Sunday, acknowledged that ‘many of our parishes are struggling, at so many levels, to support a vibrant faith community’.

“We can no longer ignore the fact that much of what the Church has built up in Ireland over the past two centuries is now crumbling before our eyes,” Bishop Duignan said at his installation in Galway Cathedral.

He said that for a variety of reasons, many no longer believed the message (of faith) adding that at times ‘you might be inclined to think that faith in God, or friendship with Jesus or the living out of Christian wisdom is something that will soon be a thing of the past’.

“Here too, we stand at a threshold moment. Inevitably, there will be a sense of genuine mourning in letting go, but these Easter days tell us that out of such death comes new hope and new life.

“Perhaps the Lord is asking us to throw out our nets in a different direction . . . in the direction of a new and profound re-evangelisation of ourselves,” said Bishop Duignan.

He added that the Church needed to rekindle its confidence in its ability to transform ‘our oft broken lives and to transfigure our suffering world for the better’.

Bishop Duignan (51) – a native of Athlone, Co Roscommon – was appointed last February by Pope Francis to minister simultaneously as Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora along with his existing role as Bishop of Clonfert.

(Photo by Iain McDonald. The new Bishop of Galway Michael Duignan, with the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo, during the installation at Galway Cathedral).

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