By Katie Ascough - 07 December, 2019
Bishop Larry Duffy at St Macartan’s Cathedral. Pic: Rory Geary.
During the Winter 2019 General Meeting of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference this week, Monsignor Joseph McGuinness was appointed to the post of Executive Secretary of the Bishops’ Conference. Monsignor McGuinness was Parish Priest of Carrickmacross in County Monaghan, Diocesan Administrator of Magheracloone and a Vicar General (VG) of the Diocese of Clogher. He will succeed Monsignor Gearóid Dullea as Executive Secretary and will take up this appointment early in the New Year.
The Executive Secretary is responsible for organising how the work of the Conference is prepared, arranged and carried out. He ensures that the secretariat is at the service of the Conference and its members and works under the direction of its President, Archbishop Eamon Martin, and the Episcopal Secretary.
According to the Fermanagh Herald, Bishop Duffy congratulated Monsignor McGuinness on his appointment in a letter to local clergy: “I thank him for his outstanding service to date in our Diocese and know that you will all join with me in wishing him every blessing in his new role.”
Monsignor McGuinness said it was his duty to respond to the call to serve: “This always involves a degree of sadness, and this is especially so for me, given the warmth of welcome and the generosity of support which I have received…Although my time here has not been as long as I had hoped, I am blessed to have many happy memories to take with me.”
Archbishop Eamon Martin, as President of the Conference, thanked Monsignor Dullea for his excellent work since his appointment in October 2010. Monsignor Dullea will return to ministry in the Diocese of Cork and Ross.
