Ossory and Ferns will be a collaborative Church, says new Bishop of Ossory

“An emerging Church of co-responsible action depends on relationships of genuine trust,” said Bishop Ger Nash in his homily at his Installation ceremony as Bishop of Ossory, on Sunday, September 13, in St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny.

The now Bishop of Ferns and Ossory spoke about synodality and how the “The Synodal Pathway calls us to listen attentively, discern together and walk side by side.” For the bishop, the synodal “journey” is only possible “when we deliberately let go of resentment or fear and choose the daily practice of mutual forgiveness. Forgiveness is the glue that holds the Synodal Pathway together,” he said.

With the dioceses of Ferns and Ossory linked in persona episcopi, ‘in the person of the bishop’, Bishop Nash said the Church “that we are laying the foundations of” in Ossory and Ferns “will be a collaborative Church.”

He mentioned that “some of the resistance to change that is experienced as we move along the Synodal Path arises from what I think I own, or what I think I am owed, which roles are mine and mine alone, and what belongs to others.” Bishop Nash continued, “No role within the Church should exist for the sole benefit of the holder, or be exercised without consultation or collaboration … In reality, clergy and lay faithful walk the path to heaven as fellow pilgrims: each essential, each complementary, each loved by the Lord who calls us all.”