Conger

The Church of Ireland has appointed a former Roman Catholic priest to serve as Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin.

(Pictured Dean and Mrs Dunne)

The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. John Neill appointed the Ven. Dermot Dunne, Archdeacon of Ferns to the post following the death of the incumbent in December. Educated at Maynooth Seminary, Archdeacon Dunne was ordained a deacon in 1983 and priest in 1984 in the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1995 he left the Roman Catholic Church and after study at the Church of Ireland Theological College was licensed as an Anglican priest in 1998.

Dr. Neill stated he Archdeacon Dunne was a “wise pastor, and very much a man of God. In his ministry, he is warmly supported by his wife, Celia whom we also look forward to welcoming into this Cathedral and Diocesan family. Dermot is taking on a challenge to build on and develop the work of those who have gone before, but he will be generously supported by a loyal chapter, board and the great team which is the Cathedral staff, and by the whole musical foundation.”

As Dean, Dunne will be the thirty-fifth Dean of Christ Church Cathedral since 1539, when the last Augustinian Prior, Robert Paynswick was made Dean under reforms initiated by King Henry VIII.

The appoint of Dean Dunne has created a mild sensation in the Irish press, with some newspapers highlighting his rapid rise through the Church of Ireland after leaving the Roman Catholic Church to marry as a symbol of Catholicism’s problems in Ireland.

The Irish Independent stated the decline in Irish Catholic clergy numbers was “now reaching catastrophic proportions. Last year 160 priests died while only nine men were ordained, and 228 nuns passed away with only two newcomers taking religious vows.”

It argued that if the current trend continued, the number of priests in the country would drop from 4752 to 1500 over the next twenty years. Mandatory clerical celibacy was driving potential priests into the arms of the Church of Ireland, the newspaper argued.