Pope Leo XIV has designated St Mary’s Pro Cathedral in Dublin as the city’s official Catholic Cathedral, upgrading its status from temporary to permanent and making it the first cathedral in the capital for 500 years. Source: RTE.
Located on Marlborough Street, the cathedral was built in 1825 as a temporary arrangement, with plans to replace it with a dedicated cathedral at a later date.
The “Pro” stands for Pro Tempore, or temporary, and as part of the designation this will be dropped and the cathedral will be known simply as St Mary’s.
Pope Leo had been asked to grant the new status as the cathedral celebrates its bicentennial.
The cathedral has “major plans” for restoration, having recently received planning permission from Dublin City Council.
The loss of a Catholic cathedral goes back to the Reformation. Before then, the Catholic cathedral was Christ Church, but when Protestants broke away from the papacy, both Christ Church and St Patrick’s cathedrals became the property of the Church of Ireland.
It was 300 years before Catholics got their temporary cathedral with the building of St Mary’s being completed in 1825.
Its status was one of the outstanding issues of the Reformation that has affected Dublin for 500 years.
The Catholic population of Dublin has not had a dedicated cathedral in that time following the start of Protestantism and subsequent Penal Laws.
Dublin Archbishop Dermot Farrell made the announcement during his homily at a Mass on Saturday to mark the bicentenary of the cathedral on the Feast of St Laurence O’ Toole.
Archbishop Farrell told massgoers it was with “great joy” that Pope Leo consented to his request and designated St Mary’s as the Cathedral Church for the Archdiocese.
Speaking afterwards, he said it was a “big transition”, and “very important” that Dublin now has an official, permanent Catholic Cathedral.
He also said parishioners won’t see any great difference, but noted the dropping of ‘Pro’ might take some time to adjust to.
FULL STORY
Pro-Cathedral designated Dublin’s Catholic cathedral (By Conor Hunt, RTE)
RELATED COVERAGE
Pope Leo designates St Mary’s Pro Cathedral as Dublin’s Catholic cathedral (By Patsy McGarry, Irish Times)
