Michael Kelly
Archbishop Dermot Farrell on the day of his installation without a congregation due to Covid-19 regulations.. Photo: John McElroy Dublin’s new leader has insisted that how we rise to challenges and opportunities defines who we are as people of faith, writes Michael Kelly
Archbishop Dermot Farrell has said he is filled with hope as he takes up his new appointment as archbishop of the country’s largest diocese. Dr Farrell was installed in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on Tuesday morning at a Mass without a congregation.
Conviction
He said that his conviction “is not a naive hope that everything will be better tomorrow, but a hope born of a conviction that transcends these difficult days through which we are living, and a hope that transcends the limits our own capabilities.
“This time – both in the crisis that is the global pandemic, and in the many crises confronting the Church – this very time, with all its frustration and fear, is rich with possibilities.
“What we do in the coming months and years, how we live out of these challenges and opportunities, will define who we really are as a people of faith,” he said at the Mass which was livestreamed online.
Dr Farrell described the challenges facing the Church as “formidable”. He warned that preparing the Church for future generations “will not happen unless people of faith are capable of dialogue with society and culture”.
Dr Farrell insisted that “the only viable pastoral plan for the future will be the plan which comes from a genuine dialogue and discernment between the people, clergy and religious. That will involve not only working together in new ways, but getting to know each other anew”.
Without their service, without the presence of their communities, our Church would be a very different Church”
While the archbishop said “there is no pre-packaged plan to address the reality in which we find ourselves” he said “There is a direction; there are way markers, we know them well: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…They call us to build, or to re-build parishes marked by welcome, openness, forgiveness, resilience, and courage.”
Noting that his installation fell on World Day of Consecrated Life, Dr Farrell said that “the women and men who dedicate their lives to the call of the Gospel are at the heart of life of our Church. Without their service, without the presence of their communities, our Church would be a very different Church.
“They have been at the forefront of renewal in the Church, taking bold initiatives, and making significant sacrifices, putting flesh on the hope that was within them.”
Prophetic ministry
“This is not a mission that belongs to the past,” he said. “In another age, they were at the forefront of addressing the educational, social, and health of those who risked being left behind. Today they continue their prophetic ministry in the service of those whom our society might prefer not to see: those who suffer from addiction, those who struggle to put food on the table, women trafficked, those without a roof over their heads, or a front door of their own.”