By Sarah Mac Donald - 12 February, 2015
Fr Des Hillary. Pic courtesy Diocese of Killaloe
Killaloe has appointed an Administrator to oversee the running of the diocese until a new bishop is appointed.
Fr Des Hillery, the parish priest of Nenagh, was selected at a meeting of the College of Consultors on Wednesday.
The appointment follows the installation of Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly as Metropolitan Archbishop of Cashel and Emly on Sunday last.
“I am privileged to accept this new role and hope to continue the good work of Archbishop Kieran and Bishop Willie in encouraging us to respond to the challenges of the Gospel,” Fr Hillery said following the announcement.
He added that he hoped to do all he could “to facilitate the continued implementation of the pastoral plan for the Diocese of Killaloe which recognises our shared mission as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.”
He asked the people of the diocese to keep him in their prayers as they awaited the appointment of a new bishop.
Fr Hillery is a native of Milltown Malbay, Co Clare. He was educated at St Flannan’s College, Ennis and St Patrick’s College Maynooth.
He was ordained in 1984 and continued post graduate studies in Maynooth in 1984-85, receiving an STL. He later completed the Higher Diploma in Education in UCC while teaching in St Finbarr’s College in Farranferris, Co Cork.
He returned to Killaloe in 1986 and taught in St Flannan’s College Ennis until 1994 when he was appointed to the formation staff of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
While there he also took a one-year diploma in spirituality and counselling in St Louis University, Missouri, USA.
He completed his appointment in Maynooth in 2005 and took a course in mission studies in Dalgan Park, Navan, Co Meath as an associate priest with the Columban missionaries.
In 2006, he volunteered to work with the Columban Missionaries in Lima, Peru.
He returned to the diocese in 2012 and since that time has been serving as parish priest of Nenagh.
