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Irish Cardinal Desmond Connell, the retired archbishop of Dublin, died Feb. 21. He was 90.
A philosopher and strong defender of traditional Catholic values, including regarding divorce, contraception and abortion, his accomplishments during his 16 years as head of the Archdiocese of Dublin were overshadowed by the Church’s sluggish pace in dealing with the scope and devastation of clerical sexual abuse scandals.
By 1988, when St. John Paul II named him archbishop of Dublin, he was professor of general metaphysics and dean of the philosophy faculty at University College, Dublin, and was well known in academic and theological circles. He was elevated to cardinal in 2001.
As archbishop, he worked hard to clear the diocesan debt and to build new schools and parishes in response to the rapid population growth in the greater Dublin area.
During a Holy Thursday Mass, shortly before his retirement was announced in 2004, he asked for forgiveness from those he offended, especially those abused by priests.
A 2009 report, released by the independent Commission of Investigation, examined the handling of more than 300 abuse claims in the Archdiocese of Dublin from 1975 to 2004. The report said then-Archbishop Connell was “slow to recognize the seriousness of the situation when he took over in 1988…He was clearly personally appalled by the abuse but it took him some time to realize that it could not be dealt with by keeping it secret and protecting priests from the normal civil processes.”
Born in Dublin, he was educated by the Jesuits at Belvedere College before he entered Clonliffe College, Dublin’s diocesan seminary. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1951, he earned a doctorate in philosophy.—CNS
