‘You have to bring people with you’: Niall Coll begins ministry as Bishop of Raphoe

As Bishop Niall Coll prepared to enter St Eunan’s Cathedral for his installation, the words carved above the main door offered a subtle, yet powerful backdrop.

Bishop Coll waited towards the rear of a huge entrance procession of clergy - a sight in itself that outlined the magnitude of the moment - and the emotions stirred beneath the towering 240-foot spire.

The 62-year-old from St Johnston was chosen in November by Pope Leo XIV to lead the Raphoe Diocese having been Bishop of Ossory since January, 2023.

In the sandstone of the Cathedral is carved an easy-to-miss line from the Gospel of John - “By me if any man enter in he shall be saved” - that might have stuck the well-travelled prelate as he stood on the threshold of the same Cathedral in which he was ordained by Bishop Seamus Hegarty in 1988.  

The inscription, which speaks of Christ as a doorway, echoed the themes of prayer, community, vocation, service and pastoral care that shaped both the ceremony and the ministry now before Bishop Coll.

“I felt very emotional,” Bishop Coll told Donegal Live following his Mass of Installation on Sunday.

“I was thinking of all my years as a student, coming to the cathedral, and then I was ordained to the priesthood here in 1988, and I never thought the day would come when I would be the Bishop.

“I was very touched and felt very humbled by it all, and I did feel quite unworthy. 

“I was very conscious of the responsibilities that come my way now. I just pray that the Holy Spirit will give me the courage and the perseverance that will be needed.”

Over 1,000 people were inside and the notes from a choir drawn from all 33 parishes of the Raphoe Diocese were perfect as Bishop Coll was received at the door by Monsignor Kevin Gillespie and the College of Consultors.

The Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, Cardinal Sean Brady and the Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, were among the leading prelates in attendance. 

The power of prayer was evident throughout and the newly-installed Bishop remarked that it was a “very prayerful liturgy” that welcomed him back to officially begin his leading of the historic See of Raphoe and its 83,050 Catholic population.

Bishop Niall Coll with Donegal Democrat reporter Chris McNulty. Photo: Joe Boland (North West Newspix)

Bishop Coll said: "The Mass was beautiful, the music was beautiful, and there were so many people representing parishes throughout the Diocese, so many of my own family and friends, and among it all is people I haven't really seen much of for years and it was just a really lovely, humbling experience. 

“I take great strength from that and you could see that people were really involved in the prayer. It was a very prayerful liturgy. Sometimes today people think that liturgy is a performance, but that was a model liturgy; it really was the praise of God, and bringing us together in the praise of God.”

As he took hold of the McDevitt Crozier and took his seat on the cathedra, Bishop Coll could feel his flock behind him. Not least those present from his home parish of Taughboyne.

“I have been very aware of the great wave of support in St Johnston and in the Taughboyne parish particularly,” he said. “Indeed, the whole Laggan area because the people are conscious that this is maybe the first time there has been a Bishop from our area. The good wishes and prayers from the whole Diocese, from everyone, are helping me so much at the moment.”

Bishop Niall Coll with Bishop Alan McGuckian. Photo: Joe Boland (North West Newspix)

The Raphoe Diocese currently has 39 diocesan priests and seven priests on-loan who are in active ministry. Across the globe, the priesthood is an ageing body, yet Raphoe is perhaps bucking a trend at the moment with five students for the priesthood.

Bishop Coll arrives as someone with a deep affinity and understanding of the Raphoe Diocese and someone who seems passionate about the Church adapting pastorally and with a shared responsibility with parishioners. He is known to champion a famous line of former Archbishop Tomas O Fiaich at the Synod of Bishops in 1987 about: “awakening the sleeping giants of the laity”.

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Bishop Coll, whose installation ends a two-year wait for a Bishop of Raphoe following the transfer of Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ to Down and Connor, has been keen to note that many have not stopped following the Church, but perhaps follow more quietly.

“I by myself can lead them nowhere,” he said. “I’m just an ordinary human being, but it's through our faith in Jesus Christ. 

“I didn't want to be too prescriptive because you can't just come with a plan and impose it. The Church is not like a business where you can in a type of technocratic way impose a plan; you have to bring people with you.

“The Church is a voluntary organisation, I can't compel anyone to do anything with lay people, and parishes have to try and enthuse them and bring the best out of them.”

As the scores of clergy made their way into the darkening evening, the sounds of Liam Lawton’s Faithful Is The Lord Our King filled the air, its final words perhaps best capturing what Bishop Coll will hope from his people and priests: “undivided unity.”