Courtney McGrailArchbishop Eamon Martin, Primate of All Ireland has paid tribute to Bishop Gerard Clifford (pictured), who died on December 12, aged 75. Recalling a “dear episcopal colleague” who was a “generous priest and bishop”, Archbishop Eamon said “Bishop Clifford was a holy and humble man who instinctively placed the concerns of others first, as befits a true messenger of the Gospel” adding that he had throughout his ministry been a “tireless peacemaker and bridge-builder [and] one of the great figures of the ecumenical movement in Ireland”.
Gerard Clifford was born in 1941 in Bellurgan, Co. Louth. Ordained in 1967, he served as director of Religious Education in the Archdiocese of Armagh from 1969 to 1979. In 1979 the late Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich appointed him ecumenical and reconciliation officer of the archdiocese.
In 1984 Fr Clifford became the first full-time executive secretary of the Irish Bishops’ Conference. His appointment as Titular Bishop of Geron came in 1991. As a member of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Clifford was a member of its Council for Ecumenism (and Dialogue); a member of the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care, and was President of CURA from 2010 until 2013.