Cahal Daly

Cahal Brendan Cardinal Daly

Church positions
See	Armagh (Emeritus)
Title	Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh
Period in office	November 6, 1990—October 1, 1996
Successor	Seán Cardinal Brady
Previous post	Bishop of Down and Connor
Created cardinal	June 28, 1991
Personal
Date of birth	October 1 1917 (1917-10-01) (age 90)
Place of birth	Loughguile, Northern Ireland

Cahal Brendan Cardinal Daly D.D. (born October 1, 1917) is an Irish prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Armagh and thus Primate of All Ireland from 1990 to 1996, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1991.

Biography

Cahal Brendan Daly was born in Loughguile, County Antrim, Ireland. He was educated at St. Patrick's National School in Loughguile, and St. Malachy's College, Queen's University in Belfast. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 22, 1941. He studied philosophy and theology in St. Patrick's College in Maynooth, from where he obtained a doctorate in divinity in 1944. His first appointment was as Classics Master in St. Malachy's College (1945-1946). In 1946 he was appointed Lecturer in Scholastic Philosophy at Queen's University, Belfast. In 1953 he received a licentiate in philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Paris. He was a peritus, or theological expert, at the Second Vatican Council (1963-1965) to Bishop William Philbin and to William Cardinal Conway. He dedicated himself to scholarship for 30 years. Dr Daly published several books seeking to bring about understanding between the warring factions in Northern Ireland. He became a Reader in Scholastic Philosophy at Queen's University in 1963, a post he held until 1967, when he was appointed Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise on May 26. Daly received his episcopal consecration on the following July 16 from William Cardinal Conway, with Archbishop Giuseppe Sensi and Bishop Neil Farren serving as co-consecrators. From 1974 on, he devoted himself to ecumenical activities for the Vatican's Secretariat for Christian Unity. His famous pastoral letter to Protestants, written in 1979, pleaded for Christian unity. On Sunday October 17th, 1982, he succeeded William Philbin as the 30th Bishop of Down and Connor when he was installed as bishop of his native diocese at a ceremony in St. Peter's Cathedral Belfast. He had been expected to end his career in this larger diocese before being the surprise choice, at the age of 73, when the Archdiocese of Armagh fell vacant on the death of a younger man.

Archbishop of Armagh

On 6 November, 1990, he was appointed Archbishop of Armagh and, as such, Primate of All Ireland. He took a notably harder line against the Irish Republican Army than his predecessor, Tomás Cardinal Ó Fiaich. He was later created a Cardinal Priest of S. Patrizio by Pope John Paul II in the consistory of June 28, 1991. Cardinal Daly retired as Archbishop of Armagh on his 79th birthday, October 1, 1996. Though the ordinary retirement age for Catholic bishops is 75, Cardinal Daly remained in office until his 79th birthday. He has since suffered considerable ill health. Although it was announced that he would attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II, he stayed home on the advice of his doctors. As he had turned 80 in 1997, he was ineligible to participate in the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI.

Cardinal Daly has the motto, "Jesus Christ, yesterday and today" taken from the Epistle to the Hebrews (13.8). The Cardinal's armorial bearings show the arms of the Archdiocese of Armagh on the left side of the shield, and the personal arms of His Eminence on the right side. The right side of the shield shows a personalised variation of the arms of the Ó Dálaigh family. Daly opposed formal integrated education of Roman Catholics and Protestants. This policy was criticized by many (especially ecumenists) who believe segregated education to be one of the causes of sectarianism in Northern Ireland, but was seen by the elements of the Roman Catholic clergy in Northern Ireland as important to passing on of the faith to future generations. In 2001, Dr Daly donated his entire set of writings to the Political Collection of the Linen Hall Library. His donation to the Library, which is bound in handsome volumes, includes 500 sermons, essays, addresses and press statements.

Church sex abuse scandal

During his period as archbishop, Daly sustained considerable criticism within and without the Church for his handling of the sexual scandals, most notably the case of paedophile priest Fr. Brendan Smyth. Daly justified his failure to report Smyth's sexual behaviour by arguing that each bishop only has authority over the secular priests (diocesan priests) in his own diocese and has no authority over religious priests (priests in religious orders). Smyth was a member of the Norbertine order religious order. Daly was also criticised by Catholic priests live on the Late Late Show for what some of them suggested was his failure to provide leadership to the Church in the aftermath of the Smyth affair, the convictions of priests for child sexual abuse, and the resignation of former County Kerry Bishop Eamon Casey amid the revelation that he had fathered a son by an American divorceé. Cardinal Daly's primacy also coincided with the tenure of Dr Miceál Ledwith as President of the national seminary, St Patrick's College Maynooth. Ledwith resigned abruptly in 1994 following allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor. The Ferns Inquiry, established by the Irish Government in 2003 dealt with over 100 allegations of clerical sexual abuse in the Diocese of Ferns involving 21 priests over a forty year period that included the era that Daly was Primate. See also: Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal

References

• Archdiocese of Armagh
• The Ferns Report