Dermot Farrell
Dermot Pius Farrell KC*HS (born 22 November 1954) is an Irish prelate of the Catholic Church who is the current Archbishop of Dublin. He was vice president of St. Patrick's College in Maynooth from 1993 to 1996 and president from 1996 to 2007. He was Bishop of Ossory from 2018 until 2020.

Early life and education

Farrell was born in Castletown Geoghegan, County Westmeath, on 22 November 1954 and educated at St Finian's College, Mullingar. He earned an honours BSc in 1976 in mathematics and physics at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, now known as Maynooth University. St Patrick's houses both the Pontifical University and the National Seminary for Ireland.

After being ordained a priest of the Diocese of Meath on 7 June 1980, Farrell undertook postgraduate studies in theology at Maynooth. He spent several years as a curate in Mullingar from 1981. From 1985 to 1988 he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University, earning a doctorate with a thesis titled "The Dogmatic Foundations of Bernard Häring’s Thought on Christian Morality as a Sacramental Way of Life". He also served for a year as Director of Formation for the Pontifical Irish College. On his return to Meath in 1988, he was appointed curate in Tullamore. In 1990 he was appointed to the Faculty of Theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

President of St Patrick's College, Maynooth

In 1993, Farrell was appointed Executive Assistant to the president of St Patrick's, a new position. He was appointed Vice-President in 1996 and following the death in September that year of Matthew O'Donnell was appointed President of St Patrick's College and the National Seminary. He remained president of St. Patrick's when it was separated from the seminary by the Universities Act 1997. Farrell presided over the revision of the formation programme Pastores Dabo Vobis at St Patrick's. He also supervised the renovation of its heritage buildings.

In 2002, following media reports about the 1994 resignation of Maynooth President Micheál Ledwith, Farrell made the circumstances of Ledwith's departure public: that Ledwith had been accused of the sexual abuse of a minor and reached a confidential financial settlement with his accuser.

In 2006, Charles Curran, a controversial U.S. theologian, was invited to speak at a conference it was sponsoring, Farrell said he had not been consulted or informed of the invitation.

Farrell retired as President of St. Patrick's Maynooth in 2007.

Service in Meath
Farrell was Parish Priest of Dunboyne, in the Diocese of Meath, from 1 September 2007 to 2018, one of the largest and growing parishes in the diocese. He was Vicar-General of the diocese from 2009 to 2018.

Bishop
On 3 January 2018, Farrell was appointed Bishop of Ossory by Pope Francis. He received his episcopal consecration on 11 March from Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin. He became a member of the standing committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops' Conference. He became the Conference's finance secretary in March 2019.

On 29 December 2020, he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin. He continued to be Apostolic Administrator of Ossory until his installation in Dublin. His installation as Archbishop of Dublin took place on 2 February 2021.

In 2021 when it came to same-sex blessings, he said it was best “deal with those situations individually and pastorally”.

He was made a member of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre in 1998, promoted to the rank of Grand Officer in 2018.

Positions 
Soon after being appointed Archbishop of Dublin, Farrell told The Irish Times that he is in favour of opening the diaconate to women; he also claimed not to be against the ordination of women, but feared that such move could cause a schism in the Catholic Church, as it had in the Church of England and in the Episcopal Church of the United States. In the same interview, Farrell called for a more flexible approach towards celibacy, similar to the one adopted by the Eastern Orthodox Churches.

References

External links
 St Patrick's College, Maynooth
 The Irish Catholic Newspaper
 Catholic Diocese of Meath

Living people
Irish educators
21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Ireland
Bishops of Ossory
Alumni of St Patrick's College, Maynooth
Presidents of St Patrick's College, Maynooth
People from County Meath
People from Castletown Geoghegan
Pontifical Gregorian University alumni
1954 births
Members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin
People educated at St Finian's College