St Patrick, Bishop to the Irish: not Irish but British
David Quinn always has something interesting to say. Here are his views on the appointment of non-Irish priests to Sees in Ireland. I have heard that Rome may be considering appointing priests from overseas as bishops in Irish dioceses, and that may cause problems here. The Church has been quite insular here for some time - we tend to be very local, so to see how non-Irish bishops would go down with Irish Catholics would be interesting.
Personally I have no problem with it, in fact I would be in favour of it - we are a universal Church after all. Our national apostle, St Patrick was not Irish and some of our bishops in the past were not Irish - some of the former Archbishops of Dublin were not Irish born for example, including Archbishop Hugh Inge who was Bishop of Meath before being appointed Archbishop of Dublin. Archbishop Inge was born in Somerset, educated at Oxford and was a favourite of Cardinal Wolsey who was influentual in having him appointed Bishop of Meath. Inge died in 1528, just before the English Reformation and the downfall of Wolsey.
Great care will have to be taken, but I think David has a few valid suggestions as to how it could be done. And let's face it, Irish priests have been appointed as bishops to various overseas dioceses for years, in Africa for example, so we should be willing to accept bishops from other countries.
Bring on holy, obedient, courageous Bishops who will LEAD the people in faith and morals and defend the Faith and the faithful and public morals from attack FROM THE FRONT! If such Bishops can't be found among Irish priests - then they must come from other nations. There are some potential candidates in Ireland but they're generally not high up on the conventional (and, I might add, irrelevant) pecking order. Dear Lord, please soon send the faithful in Ireland some holy, fearless, uncompromising Bishops!
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