The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
MOST Most. Rev. Dr Brendan Kelly will be formally installed as Bishop of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Apostolic Administrator of Kilfenora this Sunday.
The ceremony will take place at the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas, Galway.
Born in Derrybrien, County Galway in May 1946, he was the second of nine children born to Sean and Annie Kelly.
Following his Leaving Certificate in 1964 he was accepted by the then bishop, Michael Brown, to study for diocesan priesthood in the Galway Diocese. He was sent to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth in September of that year.
As a seminarian Bishop Brendan completed a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1967 and a Bachelor of Divinity Degree in 1970. He was ordained to the priesthood in June 1971 by Bishop Brown in the Cathedral of Our Lady Assumed into Heaven and St. Nicholas.
His first appointment was to the parish of Kinvara as a curate before being appointed to the teaching staff of Coláiste Éinde in Salthill in 1972, completing a Higher Diploma in Education in the then UCG. Bishop Brendan remained on the staff of Coláiste Éinde until 1980 when he was transferred to the teaching staff of Our Lady’s College, Gort, becoming president in 1986.
Following the 1995 amalgamation of the three Gort secondary schools, Bishop Brendan was granted sabbatical leave for one year and went to live with the L’Arche Community at Cuise-la-Motte in France. Founded by Jean Vanier in 1964, the worldwide L’Arche movement seeks to create inclusive, creative and caring families where people with and without intellectual disabilities live and work in friendship, joy and mutual respect.
Returning to his diocese in 1996, Bishop Brendan was appointed by Bishop James McLoughlin as parish priest of Lisdoonvarna and subsequently as parish priest of An Spidéal in 2003.
In November 2007, Bishop Brendan was named by Pope Benedict XVI as the Bishop of Achonry,succeeding recently retired Bishop Thomas Flynn. Last December, Pope Francis named Bishop Brendan as Bishop of Galway.
