New coadjutor for Dublin Archdiocese

Source: Irish Bishops Conference Media Office

Pope John Paul II has appointed the Most Reverend Diarmuid Martin, Titular Archbishop of Glendalough, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the Office of the United Nations in Geneva, as Coadjutor to the Archdiocese of Dublin. The appointment was officially announced in Rome on Friday.

The present Archbishop of Dublin, Cardinal Desmond Connell, will continue in office until the Episcopal See falls vacant. The Archdiocese of Dublin has an estimated Catholic population of 1,033,808 in 200 parishes and includes the City and County of Dublin, nearly all of County Wicklow and portions of Counties Kildare, Carlow, Wexford and Laois.

Under the Code of Canon Law (1983), a coadjutor bishop has the right of succession. When the episcopal see falls vacant, the coadjutor immediately becomes the bishop of the diocese for which he was appointed. The episcopal see usually becomes vacant by the death of the diocesan bishop or by his resignation accepted by the Holy See.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was born in Dublin on 8th April 1945. He attended the Oblate School, Inchicore; De La Salle School, Ballyfermot; Marian College, Ballsbridge in Dublin, and studied philosophy at University College Dublin and theology at the Dublin Diocesan Seminary, Holy Cross College, Clonliffe. He was ordained priest by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid in St Patrick's Training College, Drumcondra, on 25th May 1969. He later studied moral theology at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome. In 1973-74 he was Curate at the Parish of St Brigid in Cabinteely. In 1975 he was responsible for the pastoral care of Dublin pilgrims during the Holy Year in Rome. Archbishop Diarmuid entered the service of the Holy See in 1976 in the Pontifical Council for the Family. In 1986 he was appointed Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and in 1994 Secretary of the same Pontifical Council. On 5th December 1998 he was appointed Titular Bishop of Glendalough and received the episcopal ordination at the hands of Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Basilica on 6th January 1999.

During his service at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Archbishop Martin represented the Holy See at the major UN International Conferences on social questions held in the 1990's. He also took part in activities of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, especially on the theme of international debt and poverty reduction. He spoke of the Church's Social Teaching at conferences organised by the Bishops Conferences of the United States, of Australia, of Peru, of Scotland, and by the Council of Latin American Episcopates (CELAM), the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC), and the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Union (COMECE).

He was a member of various Vatican Offices, including the Central Committee for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. In addition he was a member of the Joint Working Group for relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches and a founding trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue (established by the Archbishop of Canterbury). I

n March 2001 he became Archbishop and undertook his current responsibilities as Permanent Observer of the Holy See in Geneva, at the UN and at the World Trade Organisation. He led the delegations of the Holy See to the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (Doha, 2001), the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.