Bishop Niall Coll is the new Bishop of Raphoe
| Pope Leo XIV appoints Bishop Niall Coll as the new Bishop of Raphoe |
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| Bishop Niall Coll, Bishop of Raphoe (Catholic Communications Office archive) |
| Media interviews available at Saint Eunan’s Cathedral, Letterkenny. His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Niall Coll, until now Bishop of Ossory, as the new Bishop of Raphoe. The news of this Episcopal appointment will be made public today at 11.00am Ireland time (12.00pm in the Vatican), following 10.00am Mass in Saint Eunan’s Cathedral, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, Diocese of Raphoe. In attendance will be Bishop Coll; Bishop Philip Boyce, Bishop Emeritus of Raphoe; Monsignor Kevin Gillespie, Diocesan Administrator of Raphoe; as well as clergy and lay people. Photographers and journalists are invited to attend Mass at Saint Eunan’s Cathedral for 10.00am, and interviews will be available with Bishop Coll after 11.00am. To obtain photographs for publication purposes, please contact Brian McDaid on +353 (0) 87 257 5142 or by email cristephstudio@gmail.com. ENDS Notes for Editors The webcam link for Saint Eunan’s Cathedral can be accessed here The Diocese of Raphoe, www.raphoediocese.ie, includes the greater part of County Donegal. Life and Ministry of Bishop Niall Coll: Niall Coll was born in 1963, the eldest of four children, to Willie and Kathleen Coll, Saint Johnston, Co Donegal. Niall attended Saint Baithin’s National School, Saint Johnston and Saint Eunan’s College, Letterkenny. In September 1981 he entered the National Seminary at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, to begin his formation for the priesthood. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Geography in 1984, and a Bachelor Degree in Divinity in 1987. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Séamus Hegarty for the Diocese of Raphoe in 1988. Following a two-year period of post-graduate study in Rome he was conferred with a Licence in Theology by the Gregorian University. In 1989, having completed his studies, Father Niall was appointed to Saint Eunan’s College as chaplain and teacher. Three years later he obtained a Higher Diploma in Education from Trinity College, Dublin. In 1992 he was sent to Rome to study for a Doctorate in Theology at the Gregorian University. In 1995, he was awarded a Doctoral Degree for a thesis in Christology which was later published as Christ in Eternity and Time: Contemporary Anglican Perspectives (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2001). Thereafter, following his return from Rome, he was appointed as a lecturer in Systematic Theology in Saint Patrick’s College, Carlow. Three years later he returned to Raphoe Diocese as both chaplain in Pobalscoil na Rossan and curate in the parish of Dungloe. In 2001 he was appointed as Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and Religious Education at Saint Mary’s University College, Belfast (a college of Queen’s University, Belfast). In 2020, at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic, he returned to the Raphoe Diocese as parish priest of Drumholm (Ballintra and Laghey), and a year later was transferred to the neighbouring parish of Tawnawilly (Donegal Town and Clar). Bishop Niall is editor (with Father Paschal Scallon CM) of A Church with a Future: Challenges to Irish Catholicism Today (Dublin: Columba Press, 2005), and also of Ireland and Vatican II: Essays Theological, Pastoral and Educational (Dublin: Columba Press, 2015). He was, for many years, editor of Le Chéile: A Catholic Schools Ethos Journal, published by Saint Mary’s University College, which sought to promote the values and work of Catholic education locally. He is a member of the Irish Inter-Church Committee. His appointment as Bishop of Ossory by Pope Francis was announced on 28 October, 2022. Bishop Niall was ordained Bishop of Ossory on 22 January 2023 by Archbishop Dermot Farrell, Archbishop of Dublin, who himself had previously served as Bishop of Ossory. Three years later, on 13 November 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Bishop Niall Coll as Bishop of Raphoe, his native diocese. |