Ordination of new Ardagh and Clonmacnois bishop to be live-streamed on Sunday

The ordination of Fr Paul Connell as the new Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois will take place in St Mel's Cathedral, Longford, at 3pm this Sunday, June 18.

Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, will be the principal consecrator for the Mass, which will be live-streamed on longfordparish.com. It will also be broadcast on iCatholic.ie, and by Shannonside radio.

The appointment of the Mullingar native to lead the local diocese was announced in early April.

Representatives of each of the 41 parishes in the diocese, which takes in areas of Westmeath, Offaly, Longford, Cavan and Leitrim, are due to participate in Sunday's ceremony.

During the service, Archbishop Martin will be assisted by co-consecrators Archbishop Francis Duffy, Archbishop of Tuam, and Bishop Tom Deenihan, Bishop of Meath.

The new Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland, His Excellency Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, will preside at this Mass.

In addition to the consecrators, the Mass will be concelebrated by Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop Emeritus of Armagh, members of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, both serving and retired and other clergy present.

The Master of Ceremonies will be Fr Turlough Baxter, who previously served in St Mary's Parish, Athlone.

A recent message on the website of the Ardagh and Clonmacnois diocese asked people to pray for Fr Connell in the lead up to his ordination.

"We pray on this feast of the Holy Spirit that bishop-elect Paul will be blessed with the ‘gifts’ and ‘fruits’ necessary to lead our diocese in these challenging and uncertain times," it stated.

Archbishop Francis Duffy, who was the previous bishop of the diocese, blessed the incoming bishop's crozier, ring, cross and mitre during a special Mass celebrated in the Cathedral on Tuesday evening.