Bishop Alan McGuckian will be installed as the new Bishop of Down & Connor in Belfast this Sunday.
A large gathering of laity, religious clergy, family and guests is expected at the Mass at Saint Peter’s Cathedral.
Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop Emeritus of Armagh, will preside over the Installation Mass.
Among the concelebrants will be Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Eamon Martin and Bishop McGuckian’s two brothers, Frs Bernard and Michael, who are also Jesuit priests.
Bishop Alan had served as Bishop of Raphoe since his ordination as Ireland’s first Jesuit bishop on 6th August 2017.
The return to the Diocese of Down and Connor is a homecoming for Bishop McGuckian, a native of Cloughmills, who served as a member of the Jesuit team in Belfast for many years.
Father Alan served as chaplain to many of the Gaelscoileanna in the Diocese of Down and Connor and was, for a few years, Chaplain in the University of Ulster at Jordanstown and Belfast. He also served as spiritual director to the Diocesan Seminary.
From 2012 to 2017, Father Alan worked closely with the Diocese of Down and Connor in the ‘Living Church’ project.
Father Alan was the first director of the Permanent Diaconate within the diocese. The diocese now has sixteen serving permanent deacons, several of them married, ministering in parishes and chaplaincies across the diocese.
The Diocese of Down and Connor is the second largest diocese in Ireland stretching from Portrush and Portstewart in the north of the diocese to Kilkeel in the south of the diocese. The Catholic population is 330,000 and there are 87 parishes and 151 churches in the Diocese.
