Belfast Jesuit Fr Alan McGuckian has been appointed as the new Bishop of Raphoe.
The outgoing Bishop of Raphoe, Philip Boyce, will formally make the announcement of his successor after Mass this morning at St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny.
Fr McGuckian SJ, a native of Cloughmills in County Antrim, was proposed to Pope Francis – the Catholic Church’s first Jesuit Pope – by Archbishop Charles Brown, who is the outgoing Papal Nuncio.
Bishop Boyce was appointed Bishop of Raphoe in 1995 and turned 75 – the mandatory retirement age for Bishops – in January.
Bishop Boyce was the Chief Celebrant and Homilist at Mass at St Eunan’s Cathedral this morning, when the announcement was made in the company of leading Priests from around the Diocese.
Bishop Boyce will continue in the role until after Fr McGuckian is ordained as Bishop of Raphoe later this year.
Fr McGuckian is a member of the Jesuit community in Belfast.
He has a background in both secondary education and communications.
After ordination in 1984 he spent some years teaching in Clongowes Wood College, a boarding school outside Dublin.
From 1991 to 2005 he was based at the Jesuit Communication Centre in Dublin. During that time he set up the websites sacredspace.ie, gettingmarried.ie and catholicireland.net.
Since Feb 2014 Fr. Alan has been the Director of Formation for the Permanent Diaconate.
Fr McGuckian’s appointment has come as a surprise with leading clerics having anticipated the selection of the Buncrana-based Fr Francis Bradley earlier this week.
Monsignor Kevin Gillespie – a native of Gweedore now based in the Vatican, who is a Papal Master of Ceremonies for Pope Francis, a role he previously served for Pope Benedict XVI – and Fr Paul Farren, who is the Administrator of St Eugene’s Cathedral in Derry city were also mentioned.
Others who were touted were the Armagh-based Fr Eugene Sweeney and Fr Niall Coll, a native of St Johnston, who is an author and senior lecturer at St Mary’s College in Belfast.
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