By Cliona Connolly

POPE Benedict has appointed 54-year-old Monaghan-born Monsignor Noel Treanor as the new bishop to the diocese of Down and Connor.

 Mayor of County Monaghan Gary Carville has congratulated Mgr Treanor on this significant appointment. “This appointment is a great honour for Mgr Noel personally but also for his family and his native parish of Tyholland and county of Monaghan as well as for the Diocese of Clogher, of which he has been a priest since 1976.

“Mgr Treanor brings to the position the valuable experience of many years working both in the cross-border Diocese of Clogher and more recently in Brussels where he was Secretary-General to the Conference of Bishops of the European Union and other affiliated countries (COMECE). All of this experience together with his great personal qualities, will equip him well for his new and onerous post,” Mayor Carville added.

Monsignor Treanor’s new diocese is the second largest in Ireland after Dublin and includes the greater Belfast area. It covers all of Co Antrim, the greater part of Co Down and part of Co Derry, and has 330,000 Catholics in 88 parishes and over 150 churches.

Monsignor Treanor currently works in Brussels with the European Bishops’ Commission. The commission monitors and analyses political developments in the EU and keeps the Catholic Church briefed on policy and legislation. He is also a priest of the Clogher diocese.

Monsignor Treanor will become the 32nd Bishop of Down and Connor. He will be ordained on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on Sunday 29 June. He replaces Dr Patrick Walsh, who submitted his resignation to the Pope in 2006 as required on reaching the age of 75. He had been bishop since April 1991.