Vatican appointment for Dublin-born priest

Source: Irish Catholic Communications Office

Pope John Paul has appointed Dublin-born priest Fr Brian Farrell, Bureau Chief of the Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, as Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of bishop.

The bishop-elect was born in Dublin, in 1944. He entered the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1961. Fr Brian began his novitiate with philosophical and theological studies in Salamanca and continued in the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome until 1966. He continued his formation for the priesthood in the United States and was ordained a priest on the 26 November 1969 in Rome. From 1970-1976 he was Director of the Novitiate of the Legionaries of Christ in Connecticut, U.S. He was awarded a Doctorate in Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1981 and he began work in the Secretariat of State in the Vatican in October of the same year.

On the 1st January 1999 he was nominated as head of the General Affairs section of the Secretariat of State. His brother, Most Rev Kevin Farrell was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Washington last December.