ORDINATION OF MGR BRENDAN KELLY
AS
BISHOP OF ACHONRY
CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION & ST NATHY
SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2008
INTRODUCTION
CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

We come together this afternoon in this Cathedral of the Annunciation and St Nathy, to ordain Mons. Brendan Kelly, Bishop of Achonry. Today Jesus, the Good Shepherd, entrusts his people, with unfailing love, to a new shepherd, a successor of St Nathy – the founder and patron of the diocese. With the help of the priests, the new bishop will continue to nurture the flock with the Good News of the Gospel, and to lead them in the ways of holiness through the Eucharist in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Usually the principal consecration of a suffrage bishop is the Metropolitan bishop. I thank Archbishop Neary for graciously bestowing this invitation and honour on me today. So today we entrust Achonry’s new bishop to the loving protection of its patron saints Attracta and Nathy. As we do so, we thank God for the faithful and generous service of Bishop Tom Flynn, over the last thirty-one years. May he continue to live in good health and happiness after the example of his illustrious predecessor, Eugene O’Hart, who lived to be a hundred and is reported to have been administering Confirmation when he was well into his nineties.

I know that you will accompany both Bishop Kelly and Flynn with the support of your prayers and sacrifices which in this Mass we unite to the prayers of Jesus.