A NEW coadjutor Bishop of Kilmore to succeed Bishop Francis MacKiernan was installed at St Patrick's Cathedral, Cavan, yesterday. He is Father Leo O'Reilly, parish priest of Castletara, Co Cavan.
Bishop O'Reilly (52) was ordained 27 years ago. He is a scripture scholar, spent seven years in Africa, taught at the Irish College in Rome and was chaplain to a Cavan community school. As coadjutor bishop he will automatically succeed Dr MacKiernan when he retires. Since Cardinal Daly's retirement Dr MacKiernan (70) is the longest serving Irish Catholic bishop.
At the ceremonies yesterday Dr MacKiernan was the principal ordaining bishop, assisted by the Papal Nuncio, Monsignor Luciano Storero, and the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Brady.
The new bishop told the congregation: "We live in a world of fashions and gadgets, of facelifts and body shops. As a nation we never had it so good materially. But thoughtful people are beginning to warn that all is not well.
"There was a hunger of the heart and some were turning to cults and New Age movements to satisfy it. Sadder still, some tried to satisfy the yearning with alcohol, drugs or casual sex and often wrecked their own lives and the lives of their families and friends."
Saddest of all were those who found it impossible to go on living a life that was empty of meaning and hope.