Cork canon to be ordained bishop of Meath on Sunday

Eilis Ryan

As the church in Ireland wrestles with a crisis in vocations, the bishop-elect of Meath, Canon Thomas Deenihan says more priests are needed, and it's an area to which the church will be paying attention.

“Vocations promotion is something we're going to need to have to keep working at,” he said, although he is pleased that Ashbourne deacon Fergal Cummins is to be ordained on 30th September; and in the seminary, there are two men from Offaly coming up the ranks, and also another Meath man.
“I always would have associated Meath as being a diocese with a healthy stream of young priests and vocations and good numbers, and I was looking at some statistics recently and we have 38 priests under 50, which is a significant statistic and better than most,” said Cork native Deenihan, who will be ordained Bishop of Meath in the Cathedral of Christ the king in Mullingar on Sunday next.
“The reality, however, is that population trends in Meath are such - with Dublin moving out - that the priests in that communter belt - in Dunshaughlin, Ashbourne and Dunboyne are working very hard, and there's an ageing cohort of priests too who will need to retire – and we need more.”
Three days after his ordination, Canon Deenihan travels to Rome to join other new bishops on an eight-day training course – following which he flies directly to Lourdes to join the Meath diocesan pilgrimage.
And straight after, it's over to Screggan to bless the opening of the National Ploughing Championships.
In his own opinion, one of the biggest immediate obstacles he needs to challenge as Bishop of Meath will be his own lack of knowledge of his new diocese.
“I'm going to have to spend the next couple of months travelling the diocese – I've visited a few places already - getting to know parishes and getting to know the priests and getting to know the issues locally,” he says.
Already on the agenda for him is the “significant issue” relating to school services in Ashbourne; the rededication of the church in Killyon in October; the blessing of a school extension in Kingscourt – all the sort of events that will serve him well in his efforts to get to know the diocese better, as will the confirmation ceremonies next spring.
Besides his time studying for the priesthood, Canon Deenihan's entire life has been centred on Cork: a native of Dublin Pike in Blackpool parish in Cork city, he attended the famed North Monastery CBS, where he enjoyed debating. From early on, he had a leaning towards religious life.
“Like most people of my generation, I was an altar server and in that sense the Catholic culture was an important part of my life, and like most altar boys at that stage, I did consider priesthood.
“In post primary school, I suppose, my interest went to other things, and as I went towards Leaving Cert I came back towards the whole notion of priesthood and went straight to Maynooth after the Leaving Certificate.”
At Maynooth – where his classmates included two serving Meath priests, Fr Padraig McMahon and Fr Martin Halpin, Canon Deenihan took no breaks or “time out” along the route, saying he was of a generation for which formation was “straightforward”.
On 1st April 1990, Canon Deenihan was ordained a deacon by the now-retiring Bishop of Meath, Dr Michael Smith. A year later, he was ordained to the priesthood, and he was posted to Glanmire.
The young Fr Deenihan served there until 1994 when he was appointed to a teaching role at St Goban's College in Bantry, where he worked until 2003. Over his years in teaching, he also served as a curate in the parishes of Schull, Kealkil and Bantry. 2003 saw him appointed diocesan education secretary and director of post primary religious education, and he was diocesan secretary until last week.
He recalls his first ever visit to Meath was in 1991, when Fr Declan Kelly, currently parish priest of Stamullen – was taking part in a Trim Musical Society production of 'Oklahoma'.
“Two of us from Maynooth went down to see it. That was my first foray into Meath - and the production was quite good!” he adds.
Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh will be the principal celebrant at the episcopal ordination ceremony at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar at 3pm on Sunday, with Bishop Michael Smith and Bishop John Buckley from Cork.
Some 20 bishops, several mitred abbots and 150 priests have indicated they will attend. Fr Padraig McMahon of Mullingar, the incoming parish priest of Athboy, says all residents of the diocese are welcome to the ordination.　
The homily will be preached by Fr Denis McNelis, parish priest of Laytown and Mornington.