Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Niall Coll of Ossory as the new Bishop of Raphoe, marking his first appointment of an Irish bishop since the papal election last May.
The announcement of the episcopal appointment was made at St Eunan's Cathedral in Letterkenny following mass this morning.
The north west diocese has been without a bishop since the appointment of Bishop Alan McGuckian as the Bishop of Down and Connor in February 2024.
Monsignor Kevin Gillespie has served as Diocesan Administrator for almost two years.
Bishop Coll, 62, and a native of Saint Johnston in east Donegal, will return to the north west, having served as Bishop of Ossory since January 2023.
He told mass goers at St Eunan's Cathedral that he was humbled to return to his home diocese. He acknowledged his predecessors and addressed the challenges facing the diocese, calling for renewal.
He said at national level, the Church was reflecting deeply on its future and how parishes and dioceses might be reorganised and how faith might be handed on in a more secular world.
Bishop Coll said Raphoe was going through profound change, similar to every diocese and added that the Church was "no longer at the centre of public life" as it was once the case.
"Many people who once found their identity naturally in the life of the parish now find it elsewhere … patterns of belief and belonging have shifted," he said.
"The number of priests continues to decline, and we feel this particularly in our smaller rural communities, where the priest’s presence has long been interwoven with local life".
Bishop Collsaid the renewal of the Church in Raphoe would depend on a "shared sense of mission, where priests and people walk together".
He said while conversations on sustaining faith in a more secular world "can stir anxiety," that it was an opportunity to imagine how faith "might take root afresh in our time".
He said although faith is often met with "indifference and sometimes even hostility," he does not believe that "Irish people have lost their spiritual hunger".
He said the Church must support its clergy, vocations, empower lay leadership and "engage thoughtfully" with the culture around it.
"We may need to share resources more effectively, to collaborate across parish and diocesan boundaries, and to find new forms of ministry suited to today’s realities," he said.
Bishop Niall Coll was ordained a priest in 1988 after studying in Maynooth. Following ordination, he studied in Rome and in Trinity College Dublin, before returning to Rome to complete a doctorate.
He was previously a Chaplin and a teacher at St Eunan's College in Letterkenny, Chaplain in Pobalscoil na Rossan and curate in the parish of An Clochán Liath.
He also lectured in St Patrick’s, Carlow College and in Saint Mary’s University College, a college of Queen’s University Belfast.
He returned to the Diocese of Raphoe in 2020, where he was appointed parish priest of Drumholm in south Donegal.
He was subsequently appointed parish priest of Tawnawilly in Donegal Town in 2021. He was later ordained Bishop of Ossory in January 2023.
