‘We need to lead like Pope Francis – with a more human face’

The Church must preach the Gospel, even if that is unpopular Archbishop-elect Dermot Farrell tells Michael Kelly

When Dr Dermot Farrell is installed as Archbishop of Dublin next week it will be quite unlike any such episcopal installation in the capital in recent memory. The ceremony in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on February 2 – the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord – will be behind closed doors as a result of pandemic restrictions.

But, the beauty of Church history is that there is very little that is new. Covid-19 is not the first time in the 2,000 year history of Catholicism that the Faithful have been afflicted by a plague. Archbishop-elect Farrell will be installed and take possession of his cathedra – the episcopal seat from which the cathedral gets its name – when he presents the letter appointing him from Pope Francis to a senior group of clergy known as the College of Consultors.

It will be a lowkey affair, but one that will mark an important milestone in the history of the country’s largest diocese. Dr Diarmuid Martin was named coadjutor archbishop in Dublin in 2003 and much of his time has been marked by a series of punishing revelations of abuse and getting proper safeguarding standards in place.

From a rural background in Co. Westmeath, Archbishop-elect Farrell (66) spent summer holidays in the capital.

“From a young age Dublin has always been part of my life,” he said of his appointment.

He recalls spending time with his aunt and uncle who lived and worked in the Liberties. “They introduced me to the history and rich cultural life of the city. Dublin has always been a place of welcome for people from all over Ireland. Now it is a city of welcome for people from all over the world,” he said.

But the diocese of more than the city: its 198 parishes — rural and urban — stretch across Leinster. Dr Farrell believes that “This presents distinctive challenges and opportunities. The challenges to take account of the new cultural and social contexts in which we find ourselves and in which the Gospel is proclaimed,” he said.

Different world

It is a different world to the one Dr Farrell was born into in the 1950s when Ireland was a much more instinctively Catholic country. He had many priests in his own family and it felt like a natural route to take when he left school in the early 1970s. “It was something I had considered when I was in secondary school, on and off.

“Sometimes I’d think about it, sometimes you’d put it off. It came more and more to the fore, I suppose, as you came towards the end of your secondary school. So I said, let’s go,” he recalls.

It was a journey of discernment that would take him to ordination to the priesthood in 1980 and his first pastoral appointment as a curate in the cathedral parish of Christ the King, Mullingar. In 1985 he began postgraduate studies in the Gregorian University in Rome and was awarded a doctorate three years later for his dissertation: The Dogmatic Foundations of Bernard Häring’s Thought on Christian Morality as a Sacramental Way of Life.

During his final year in Rome he also served as a formation director in the Pontifical Irish College – experience that would serve him when he was later appointed president of the national seminary St Patrick’s College, Maynooth where he first joined the teaching staff in 1989.

The untimely death of Msgr Matthew O’Donnell in 1996 left a vacancy for president of Maynooth and Dr Farrell was appointed by the bishops. It was a turbulent time at the college as Msgr O’Donnell had replaced MsgrMicheál Ledwith who fled the college in (at the time) unexplained circumstances just two years earlier.

Dismissed

Msgr Ledwith – who joined a new-age cult in the United States – was subsequently dismissed from the priesthood after allegations that he had abused a child and engaged in inappropriate sexual behaviour with seminarians, claims he denies.

Dr Farrell recalls that the culture of Maynooth had transformed dramatically since his time as a student there in the 1970s. The focus had shifted from training to formation and St John Paul II’s landmark 1992 document Pastoresdabo vobis (I will give you shepherds) was framing the thinking around the preparation of young men for the priesthood.

“In order that his ministry may be humanly as credible and acceptable as possible, it is important that the priest should mould his human personality in such a way that it becomes a bridge and not an obstacle for others in their meeting with Jesus Christ the Redeemer of humanity,” the Pope had written.

The document identified four pillars of formation: intellectual, spiritual, human and pastoral.

“When I think about the formation that I went through in Maynooth, the emphasis was largely on the intellectual and the spiritual – that was the case, I’m sure, for the previous 100 years,” Dr Farrell recalls.

“We were overly-dependent on spiritual direction and intellectual formation. Given the number of seminarians, it was impossible to have any sort of real human formation,” he says.

Formation

He believes that formation now – while underlining the vital importance of the intellectual and spiritual – is more balanced because “we came to realise more and more that the human dimension is a building block, so if the human dimension is not right, your foundation is very shaky.

“So out of all that I hope the people serving the Church in Ireland certainly should be more human and certainly more pastoral. From what I can gather working with priests who’ve gone through the system that is certainly the case.

“The Church is certainly more humble. What we need is a Church that is more human and has a more pastoral approach. When you read the Gospels, what comes across there in the way Jesus ministered to people: his compassion comes across, and these are the human things,” he says.

Archbishop-elect Farrell sees the human dimension as one of the reasons people are so taken with Pope Francis.

“When I reflect on his teachings, and you read his pastoral [letters], he’s talking about the care of people and Jesus was somebody who cared – who had compassion,” he says.

He believes that the key thing in choosing future priests is to ensure that the human dimension is right. “If you build on sand, we’re all too aware of what happens when the human dimension is wrong. But I think the priests we have now are very well balanced. They’re the new wave that is coming to fore in the Irish Church – the new leaders. There’s a different way of thinking. They’re approaching pastoral ministry in a different way. And that promises to me to be a better future for the Church, and they will have a better relationship with the people that they serve – their humanity comes across,” he insists.

Dr Farrell comes to Dublin in the wake of significant defeats for the Church’s moral teaching on issues on the definition of marriage and the right to life. More than three quarters of voters in the capital – many of them regular Massgoers – voted for abortion in 2018.

He describes the relationship between Church and State as “tensive” adding that given the radical nature of the Gospel “I think it’s probably good that there’s a tensive relationship, that’s important.

“The first thing I think priests or bishops are called to do is to preach the Gospel: we’re asked to make people disciples, we’re asked to make people holy – and that’s a fairly delicate task. In terms of trying to guide people, you’re also guiding society, just not individuals.

“You look at the transformation – the cultural transformation – that’s taken place in the last 20 or 30 years, it’s just phenomenal. We’re called to exercise ministry where there’s huge culture transformation.

“There is secularism in the country and that does weaken the faith, God is lost in that sense and we have to speak that message in a way that’s heard today.

“And it’s not always heard. It is difficult to be heard in the society in which we live in, but we can’t shun that responsibility,” he believes.

Euthanasia

Central to that responsibility, Dr Farrell insists is the Church having the courage to speak out and defend its teaching. I ask him about the current push in the Oireachtas to legalise euthanasia. He is emphatic: “the first thing we have to state very clearly is what the teaching of the Church is. It has to be stated very bluntly, that if it [euthanasia] comes into law at some stage, it’s not only going to encourage the acceptance of assisted suicide, but it’s also going to weaken the protection against what you might call ‘non-consensual killing’ of your vulnerable class of people. They’re the people that are going to suffer if this bill was to come into law,” he says.

The tone of the debate around the issue also worries the prelate He believes that the key thing in choosing future priests is to ensure that the human dimension is right. “When I listen to what’s being said, there’s almost an assumption underlying this whole thing that there is such a thing as a life without value.

“We can’t accept that. Every life has a value. There is no life that is not worth living,” he insists.

His own mother Carmel “was very ill for 112 days,” he recalls. “Every minute of that life was valuable to her. It was worth living, it was worth having her family around.

Assumption

“There’s a false assumption in this whole thing that life is not worth living, that inevitability erodes the very basis of legal respect and protection on the basis of equality for every human life regardless of their age, disability, competence or illness,” he says.

Dr Farrell also thinks that laypeople have a duty to also speak out rather than try to leave it to bishops and priests. “The message has to be spoken very strongly. Not just by priests and bishops, but by every single person in this country. Because what politicians ultimately respond to is the views of the people.

“It’s up to us [bishops] to encourage people to speak out and to push the importance of life which is the fundamental value that every other value is based on. If you don’t have the value of life then you can’t talk about other values. You can be talking about the rights to a home, or the rights to x, y, and z – but if you don’t have the right to life including that end of life, you can’t talk about other values,” Archbishop-elect Farrell says.

He also rejects caricatures of priests as being too timid to defend the Church’s teaching. My experience with priests, when they were talking about the abortion referendum, for example, was that they were not afraid to speak out.

“There are countless examples of people in the Church – not just bishops or priests – who are baptised and are speaking very proudly about their Faith: that’s the thing we need to do today, we have to have the courage to speak,” he says.

He passionately believes in a collaborative effort between clergy and laypeople to put the Church’s voice in the public square. “Sometimes we have a form of clericalism where we reduce the Church to priests or to bishops – all of us have a responsibility as baptised members to preach the Gospel, to be missionaries for the Gospel.

“If you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ, then there are concrete workings out of that in terms of moral values. Priests have the courage to do it, but sometimes maybe we need to encourage the laity more. Because laypeople want to hear these things spoken about – we believe in these truths. We can’t be dictated to just by popularity because sometimes doing the popular thing is not necessarily the right thing,” he says.

Flashpoints

One of the flashpoints between the Church and the wider culture is the reservation of the priesthood to men alone. Dr Farrell has been characterised as expressing support for women priests since he said that this teaching is based on Tradition rather than Scripture.

“Obviously my thoughts on these issues are far more nuanced than that particular article,” he says, keen to point out the necessary distinction between discussions about female deacons and the priesthood.

On the issue of deacons, Dr Farrell references the long discussions that have being going on about admitting women to this ministry which have been inconclusive.

“Basically there is a discussion – but I suppose what’s required along with the discussion is the discernment. And they’re not the same. Discernment is done in prayer and is the prompting of the Spirit, and ultimately it’s the universal Church that will decide whether there will be female deacons, and if there are female deacons, what they will actually do,” he says.

Archbishop-elect Farrell is keen to correct any misconception that he spoke in favour of the admission of women to the priesthood. “The way I always like to approach that issue is that for Catholics Scripture and Tradition are in a dynamic relationship. Scripture and Tradition carry the deposit of Faith.

The important thing often in the Catholic Church when we think about Scripture and Tradition, we need to say ‘look, these two things go hand in hand’.

“It’s not either or, but it’s both, and. They are distinct, but they’re not separate…With regard to women priests, we base ourselves on the revealed Word of God. That is carried in tradition and priesthood is tied into the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

“It’s not an invention of the Church – sometimes you think the way it’s discussed, it’s almost like it [priesthood] was invented by the Church, but it’s not. It’s instituted by Christ,” Dr Farrell says.

He also believes that discussion around women priests can sometimes “be another form of clericalism – it’s a conversation that sometimes distracts”.

Challenges

Dublin – not unlike other dioceses – is faced with a myriad of challenges. Not least are the financial challenges, but priests and others in the archdiocese have frequently complained about a lack of reforms.

“The first thing I have to do is I have to try and listen – which I did here in Ossory – to the priests and the people of Dublin,” he says.

While not naïve about the challenges, Dr Farrell is keen to say he wants to hear about “opportunities not just crises”.

“Crises are an opportunity for grace – they’re not necessarily bad things. Sometimes we can think of them as not being helpful or whatever, but we need to look at what are the opportunities. I want to hear about those. Because a diocese that’s as large as Dublin and a people as diverse as you find in Dublin, there has to be opportunities there for some real developments,” he says.

Inevitably, some of the work in Dublin will be disposing of infrastructure that is no longer necessary. Dr Farrell hopes this is something that will come from the ground up. “What I would like is that the community would begin to consider these things rather than me coming in with a solution. But, I think it’s important that people look at the challenges, but also the opportunities,” he says.

He sees the Holy Spirit in the midst of the issues facing the Church. “If these challenges weren’t there would we be looking at more involvement of laity? Looking for new ministries for laity? Probably not,” he believes.

Covid-19 restrictions notwithstanding, one gets the impression that Dr Farrell is keen to hit the ground running. “What I’ll be doing is listening to the priests, hearing what they have to say. And listening to parish councils, parish finance councils, all of the groups that are involved in their parish,” he says of his priorities.

It was a process that he adopted in Ossory when he was appointed there in 2018. “What I discovered talking to them is that they’re sometimes more realistic – they’re people of the world. They can see the problems. They can see what we have at the moment is not sustainable in terms of the demographics of the priests, the finances, and the amount of buildings that we have with the amount people that are practicing.

“That needs to be addressed by the faith communities including the priests and the bishop,” he says of the experience.

Could this lead to a synod in Dublin – an idea first mooted by Cardinal Desmond Connell more than 20 years ago. “Maybe, but that’s down the road,” Archbishop-elect Farrell says.

He is acutely aware that a synod is a point on a journey, but that the journey itself cannot be neglected. “Synodality for me is far more important because it’s how that journey is undertaken, and how it’s continued because it does need to be continued.

“What’s crucial for us is how we are with each other. How do I relate to my priests? How do I relate to the people in the parishes? How do they relate to me? It’s something that’s going to unfold,” he says.

The archbishop-elect uses the image of a marriage. “One can’t predetermine how that marriage is going to be or how one’s family will be. A couple gets married, they can’t know how their children are going to be if they will have children. So, what do you do with your marriage? You set a direction. One commits to the other person. You commit to a way of life. You commit to a direction. But then, your married life unfolds.

“There’s an element of mystery in that and there’s an element of gift. That’s true of the synodal ways as well,” he says.

Reform

Dr Farrell also insists that any form of structural reform cannot forget the spiritual. “What’s important about that is that the Spirit is in it. The providence of God is in it. We believe in the power of the Spirit. We believe in listening, the Spirit is speaking through the situation and through people,” he says.

Far from having a blueprint or a magic formula, Dr Farrell says it is important to get the journey right by talking and listening. “The plan will emerge when there’s a dialogue with people. That’s what I mean by a synodal Church. It’s a Church where we’re going to take peoples’ gifts seriously.

“These things need to emerge both at an individual level and at a corporate level. I’m not going to prejudge that. It’s far easier for some people to complain than to be constructive. I think we need to be positive.

“I have no problem with somebody coming in and telling me everything’s wrong. That’s fair enough, but then come in and tell me a little bit as to how we could fix some of these things,” he says.

Dr Farrell is also clearly a team player. “You have to have the right team of people to explore things. I’m not going to be doing radical things just alone, as a lone ranger. I’ll try and listen. That’s very important to listen to people, to hear what they’re actually saying and to hear what the options are. And then we try and make a decision together,” he says.

Rather than pushing a predetermined outcome, Dr Farrell underlines the fact that he is keen to hear from people who have ideas for the future. “I certainly will be involving anybody I can that have ideas and that has energy. They’ll certainly be welcomed by me with open arms. I couldn’t see why anybody would refuse to have people help who have talents.

“No one with ideas or energy is going to be let go without asking as Jesus did to the rich man, ‘What more can you give?’” he says.

A lot is said – and written – about priests’ morale in Ireland. The archbishop-elect is keen to say that he sees affirming priests in their ministry as a key part of his role as a shepherd in Dublin. “I know the last number of years in Dublin and throughout the country has been a very difficult time for priests and religious trying to preach the Gospel in sometimes very difficult and trying situations. The priests I know have certainly done that,” he says.

Future

He sees the future as building on great work that has already been done in parishes all across the country. “We’re always standing on the shoulders of other people. Sometimes we’re reaping seeds that were sewn by priests and religious in sometimes more difficult circumstances that we find ourselves now.

“I see part of role of the bishop is to be a shepherd of priests and people, and to recognise what they have done in terms of carrying the Gospel to parishes and to homes; caring for the sick; looking after the bereaved; and that has been tireless work of the priests in Dublin,” he says.

And what of future priests? Dr Farrell thinks that the work of nurturing vocations is the work of the entire Church. “Sometimes I think with a vocations director, that people pass the buck to the vocations director. Everybody has a responsibility in the Church, every priest and person.

“The vocation is a gift of God, so we need to pray for vocations. And, people need to be asked. Somebody actually has to ask you the question.

“But vocations only come out of faith. The vocations are going to come from the people in the pews and if there is nobody under 40 in the pews, there won’t be vocations. If a young guy is not praying – or an older guy even – because many of the vocations are a bit older now – you’re not going to succeed with priesthood or ministry.

“The first place is prayer, a relationship with the Lord. And if you have a relationship with the Lord, if that’s the right thing, that will emerge for you as the vocation of the priesthood,” he says.

Ahead of assuming responsibility in Dublin, Dr Farrell comes across above all as upbeat and ready for a challenge. It’s not a naïve optimism or a simplistic hope that everything will work out, but a fundamental faith in God’s gentle hand guiding the Church now as before. It’s an approach perhaps best captured by his episcopal motto taken from Psalm 124: “Our help is in the name of the Lord”.