Pope Francis appoints Bishop Paul Dempsey as Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin, new Episcopal roles in Tuam Province, accepts Bishop Fleming’s resignation

10 Apr 2024

Pope Francis attending the Festival of Families in Croke Park, Dublin, on 25 August 2018, during his visit to the 9th World Meeting of Families in Ireland

  • Media doorstep outside of the Cathedral of the Assumption, Tuam, after 10.00am Mass

His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Paul Dempsey, up until now Bishop of Achonry, as Titular Bishop of Sita and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Dublin.
 
Pope Francis has also made the following appointments, from today, in the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Tuam:

  • Archbishop Francis Duffy, Metropolitan Archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of Tuam, as Apostolic Administrator sede vacante of the Diocese of Killala; and,
  • Bishop Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin, as Apostolic Administrator sede vacante of the Diocese of Achonry.

Furthermore, Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop John Fleming, Bishop of Killala, on the grounds of age.
 
The Vatican will announce this news at 12.00pm (11.00am Ireland time).  The Archbishop of Tuam, Archbishop Duffy, together with His Excellency Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayer, Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland; Bishop Fleming; Bishop Doran; Bishop Michael Duignan, Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora, and Bishop of Clonfert; and, Bishop Dempsey, will concelebrate 10.00am Mass in the Cathedral of the Assumption at the end of which the announcements will also be made. 
 
Archbishop Duffy said, “The announcement of this level of change in the episcopate in one province at the same time is quite significant.  It creates the possibility of exploring a closer union between the Archdiocese of Tuam and the Diocese of Killala, and between the Dioceses of Elphin and Achonry, not unlike the process that is already underway in the Dioceses of Galway and Clonfert.  Any such change would involve living communities and could not be simply structural or administrative.  It would require careful discernment over some time, involving the whole people of God in the respective Dioceses.”
 
Photographers and journalists are invited to attend at the Cathedral from 10.00am.  To obtain photographs for publication purposes, please contact John McElroy on +353 (0) 87 241 6985 and by email: [email protected]
 
ENDS