Address of Archbishop Dermot Farrell
at the Installation of Ger Nash as Bishop of Ossory,
St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, 13th September 2026, 3pm
A very special greeting to the Church in Ossory. It is a great honour for me, in the name of Saint Laurance O’Toole and St Kevin, to join in the installation of Bishop Ger Nash, the next successor of Saint Kieran.
I welcome Monsignor Patrick Zay Saw Han, Chargé d’affaires a.i. at the Apostolic Nunciature, my brother bishops, the priests who will concelebrate this Eucharist, as well as those who are joining us online. I welcome Bishop Adrian Wilkinson, Church of Ireland, and the leaders of other Christian denominations. I welcome Cllr John Coonan, Deputy Mayor Kilkenny City; Ms Verona Murphy, Ceann Comhairle, Dail Eireann, and all other public representatives. Most of all, I welcome the laity of Ossory, present here, on this important day in the life of the Church in this diocese, in this place which is your home. You are the flock of the Lord and today you receive a new shepherd and guide. Together, with Christ the Head, you are the Body of Christ which is the sacrament of his presence in the world, our common home.
This is a celebration of the people. This Church of Ossory rejoices as it receives its new Bishop. Bishop Ger with your appointment as Bishop of Ossory, your relationship with the Diocese is not a mere formality but a genuine episcopal bond, marked by deliberate choices, priorities, and actions. On the evening of his election Pope Leo XIV set a clear direction: “Together, we must seek how to be a missionary Church, a Church that builds bridges, fosters dialogue, and is always open to welcoming everyone… with arms wide open to all who need our charity, our presence, our dialogue, and our love.” (Pope Leo XIV, 8th May 2025, Loggia, St Peter’s Basilica)
We come to pray for Bishop Ger who today begins a common journey with the people and priests and religious. We value the prayer of the people asking a blessing for their bishop. I pray today that Ger will gaze always firmly on Christ, the risen Christ, present and alive in the Eucharist.
The role of a bishop is to be a father to his people, a brother to his priests, and a witness of Jesus Christ to the world. The ministry of the Bishop is priestly ministry. The centre and the focal point of a diocese is not the Diocesan Offices, but the Cathedra of the Bishop and the altar of the Cathedral where the bishop exercises his priestly functions and animates the sacramental life of the local Church. The success of this mission rests in God.
Recently Pope Leo recalling the words of his predecessor Pope Francis, clearly articulated the mission of the Church, the mission of the Bishop: “to carry in our hearts the material and existential peripheries” and to go out to those on the margins of society, in order to proclaim to them “that no one is excluded from becoming an active part of the sacred building that is the Church and of the fraternity among human beings.” (2nd May 2026, Homily, Episcopal Ordinations). To carry out our mission, to engage with a society which is increasingly diverse, mobile, and detached from traditional communities of faith centred on residential parishes, we cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, in our parish or diocesan institutions, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel! The Church of today is called to be “capable of transforming everything, so that [our] customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world, rather than for her [own] self-preservation.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 27). Synodality situates the exercise of the bishop’s responsibility within the mission of all the People of God, the whole “flock of God.”
My prayer for you, Bishop Ger, in the days and years to come, is that you will discover ever more deeply the joy that comes from sharing with others the life and hope Christ brings to you and discover ever more deeply the peace and consolation that come from being a member of the community of believers, the Church. If you are even half as blessed as I was in my ministry here, you will be blessed indeed.
Now, as one, let us renew our commitment to the life we received in our baptism, and with deep humility and gratitude welcome God’s tender mercy.