TRIBUTES have been paid to a former Bishop of Limerick who passed away over the weekend.
Bishop Emeritus Donal Murray passed away in Milford Care Centre in the early hours of Sunday morning (October 13), in the company of Frs Noel Kirwan and Liam Enright.
The current Bishop of Limerick, Brendan Leahy, said that Bishop Murray’s death brought to end the life of a deeply spiritual man.
“Bishop Murray will be remembered for so much and, indeed, his work in Limerick overseeing the completion of the conservation works on St John’s Cathedral is a lasting physical memory of his time here,” Bishop Leahy said.
“But more than anything, he was attuned to the fast changing ecclesial and social context and the challenge of rebuilding the community of faith. His great mind was always working on building a Church of tomorrow, not on holding onto a Church of the past.”
Bishop Murray was appointed Bishop of Limerick in 1996, becoming the first priest from outside the diocese to be appointed to the role in 200 years.
In 2004, he created a pastoral council for Limerick, one of the first dioceses to do so.
“Among (the council’s) 21 members were representatives of the pastoral areas, lay people, priests, and religious of the diocese; and 10 of its members were women. Again, this reflected someone seeking to find a new and better path for the Church,” Bishop Leahy reflected.
Tributes paid online said the former Bishop was a man of “great faith” and a “wonderful role model for us all”.
One mourner said that Bishop Murray was “gentle, kind man with a brilliant mind”.
Another said that he was “a delightfully humble yet hugely intelligent man with enormous integrity”.
Bishop Murray was also appointed the full-time chaplain to Limerick Prison and, in 2007, was involved in a joint initiative with Limerick, Killaloe, and Kerry diocese to create St Senan’s Education Office to support the boards of management of primary schools in each diocese.
Criticisms relating to Bishop Murray’s handling of child abuse allegations during the 1980s in his period as auxiliary bishop in Dublin led to his resignation as Bishop of Limerick in 2009.
Bishop Murray will repose at St John’s Cathedral on Wednesday (October 16) from 3pm, pausing for evening Mass at 5.45pm, with evening prayers at 7.30pm.
Requiem Mass will take place on Thursday at 12 noon, with burial afterwards in Mount St Lawrence cemetery.
