Michael Kelly
It was with a mixture of disbelief and shock that the news of the untimely death of Archbishop Noël Treanor emerged on Sunday morning as Mass goers gathered to celebrate the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. From his native ‘stoney grey soil of Monaghan’ to the sprawling housing developments of his adopted home in Belfast, the words of the King in the Prophet Samuel seemed appropriate: “a great man has fallen today”.
Dr Treanor’s status as the Vatican’s chief diplomat to the institutions of the European Union (EU) meant that messages from the great and the good flowed quickly. Vincent Guérend, outgoing French ambassador to Ireland described the prelate as “a man of peace and a friend”. A social media posting from the northern Executive said that both First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly were “deeply saddened” by the news.
Impact
Prof. Sir Ian Greer, president of Queen’s University Belfast described Dr Treanor as “a man of great integrity and intellect…Noël had so much to give and had profound impact on the many lives he touched, his passing is a terrible loss, may he rest in peace.”
And that he indeed touched many lives, was evident by the warm social media responses from ordinary parishioners all across Down and Connor Diocese where he served as bishop from his appointment in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI, until Pope Francis called him in November 2022 to serve in Brussels.
He was no stranger to the European capital, and he was a passionate believer in the process of European integration. Born in the border county of Monaghan on Christmas Day in 1950 just five years after the end of the Second World War that saw somewhere between 70 to 85 million people lose their lives, about 3% of the population of the world.
He grew up in the parish of Tyholland Co. Monaghan – just a few kilometres from the border, where he attended Leitrim National School and Saint Brigid’s National School before completing his early education at Saint Mary’s Christian Brothers School, Monaghan.
He pursued his third level education at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth and in Rome.
“He had a clear vision of the Second Vatican Council and the universal call to holiness and what this meant”
He was ordained a priest in 1976 for service in the diocese of Clogher in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan. In his years of service in Clogher he served as curate and hospital chaplain in Monaghan town and in Enniskillen, as director of adult education and in 1986 as coordinator of the diocesan assembly of clergy.
In these latter two roles, he had a clear vision of the Second Vatican Council and the universal call to holiness and what this meant in terms of co-responsibility within the Church between priests, people and religious.
Vision
He brought this vision to Down and Connor though an ambitious listening process and the launch of the ‘Living Church’ programme. Part of the mission of Living Church was to empower already-existing parish pastoral councils and to assist in the setting up of new ones.
Before there was much talk of synodality in the Church, Dr Treanor had correctly identified that the only way for the Church to grow is to have laypeople central to the life of the parish. Down and Connor, for example, is now to the fore in having trained lay funeral teams preparing for the time when priests will not always be available to celebrate funeral rites.
From a young age, he saw European integration as the most effective vehicle for breaking down barriers between people – divisions that had seen tens of millions of young Europeans lose their lives in bloody wars and conflict.
He used to remark how the EU is, perhaps, the most effective peace process the world has ever seen. He was a long-serving member of the Council for European Affairs of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, and was appointed to the staff of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in 1989, and four years later asked to lead this body which is the chief liaison between the Church and the EU institutions.
He was not blind to the failings of these institutions, nor was he naïve about the form of aggressive secularism that characterised a lot of EU policymakers. He was disappointed when the attempt to draft an EU constitution remained entirely jaundiced to a so-called ‘invocatio Dei’ or acknowledgement of Europe’s Judeo-Christian roots.
“He was respected across the divide, and saw the need for the Church to offer prophetic leadership in communities that have traditionally been excluded”
However, he saw in the eventually adopted Lisbon Treaty a clear pathway for the voice of Faith to be at the heart of EU debates. Article 17 of that treaty obliged the Union – and the Member States – to maintain an open dialogue with the Church and other confessional and non-confessional organisations. Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sought to put flesh on the bones of that ideal with the so-called ‘structured dialogue’ process, but it would be fair to say it has not yet fully realised the potential of the process.
In paying tribute to Dr Treanor this week, Primate of All-Ireland Archbishop Eamon Martin recalled his presence at the plenary assembly of the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences in Serbia in June.
“Archbishop Noël served most of his ordained ministry in working to forge positive relations with partner countries of the European Union and to help nourish the Christian heart and soul of Europe.
“At our meeting in Belgrade, bishops reflected on the future of the Christian faith in Europe, and Archbishop Noël’s keen intellect, insight and leadership provided an invaluable contribution to our discussion,” Archbishop Eamon said.
When Benedict XVI asked him to go to Belfast as bishop in 2008, it was to a city that was reaping the rewards of the peace dividend, ten years on from the Good Friday Agreement. But it was a city that was still deeply divided. He worked hard to try to overcome these divisions, and was deeply committed to ecumenism and following in the footsteps of Church leaders who showed courageous leadership at a time when it was lacking in politics. He was respected across the divide, and saw the need for the Church to offer prophetic leadership in communities that have traditionally been excluded.
Service
He knew too that only a peace that was based on justice and faced the difficult moments of the past would endure. He sat side-by-side with the families of the victims of the Ballymurphy Massacre, shot dead by British troops in 1971, when they finally got justice at an inquest 40 years later.
“These families have sat through and listened to the harrowing and graphic evidence about how their loved ones died as well as how they were treated both before and after their deaths.
“These same families can now say with one voice that the truth has been heard. History will forever record the innocence of their loved ones,” he said of the 2021 process.
Dr Treanor was a disciple of the model of the Church espoused by Pope Francis long before the Argentine Pontiff ascended the Throne of St Peter. He had no time for a Church that was overly self-referential or confined itself to the sacristy. He believed that the Church had to walk alongside accompanying families and communities, as evidenced by his passionate commitment tothe Episcopal Commission for Social Issues and International Affairs, the Northern Ireland Catholic Council on Social Affairs (NICCOSA) and to the Church’s marriage care agency ACCORD. His enthusiasm and commitment to Trócaire showed his deep compassion for those suffering, particularly marginalised communities around the globe.
“His death cuts short what was surely destined to be a blossoming in Church-EU relations”
Though passionately a man of the Second Vatican Council, Noël Treanor had a broad and generous vision of what it means to be Catholic: he surprised some by his warmth and openness to the Latin Mass community in Belfast, but for him it was just another expression of the rich tapestry that makes up the Church.
Pope Francis’ choice of Noël as chief Vatican diplomat to the EU was a sign of the confidence the Pontiff has in him. It was a role that played to all of Dr Treanor’s strengths, and one in which he was already excelling at just 18 months into the role. His death cuts short what was surely destined to be a blossoming in Church-EU relations.
He will be sorely missed first and foremost by his brother John, his sister Mary, his extended family and wide circle of friends in Ireland and across Europe.
Michael Kelly is Director of Public Affairs for Aid to the Church in Need, Ireland and a former editor of The Irish Catholic.