New Irish Bishops?

At the time of writing Pope Benedict has on his desk letters of resignation from three Irish Bishops. It is unlikely that he will accept any of them before the (overdue) Irish ad limina in October. More on that in a later post. Suffice it to say that the Austrian ad limina will seem tame by comparison.

The three dioceses awaiting new shepherds are Down & Connor, Ossory, and Achonry. The Pope will likely make at least one of the appointments from the ranks of the existing auxiliary bishops, if only to reduce their number. Bishop Eamon Walsh in Dublin and either of the Down and Connor auxiliaries could be in line for promotion. But the Pope will also be keen to use this opportunity to indicate the direction in which he would like the Irish Church to move. One possibility is that he will appoint Fr. Vincent Tuomy, Professor of Moral Theology at St. Patrick's Seminary, Maynooth to fill one of the vacancies. As a former student of Prof. Ratzinger, Fr. Tuomy will be meeting the Pope in early September when he goes to Castelgandolfo for the annual meeting of the Ratzinger Schulerkreis.

One other Irish bishop to watch is Bishop Philip Boyce of Raphoe. Ireland's best bishop is well known to the Pope as a member of the Vox Clara committee which is overseeing the translation of the Missal into English. The Pope may have greater things planned for him but right now Ireland's need is probably greater. I don't think Archbishop Martin of Dublin will be going anywhere soon but it's not entirely impossible. Bishop Boyce would be an obvious, if reluctant, successor.