The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has accepted the resignation of the Bishop of Ossory, Bishop Laurence Forristal, who has reached the age limit in accordance with Canon Law.Pope Benedict has appointed Fr Séamus Freeman as Bishop-elect of the diocese.
The date of Bishop-elect Freeman’s ordination will be announced shortly.
Fr Séamus Freeman was born on 23rd February 1944, the eldest of eight children, in the parish of Mullinahone, Co Tipperary, in the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. His family later moved to Callan, Co Kilkenny, where he attended school.
He entered the Society of Catholic Apostolate (Pallotines) in Thurles, Co Tipperary and made his first Pallotine consecration in 1965. He studied philosophy at the National University of Ireland, University College Dublin, and theology at St Patrick’s College, Thurles. He was ordained a priest on 12th June 1971.
Subsequent to his ordination, Fr Freeman was sent to the Catholic University of Washington to pursue studies in psychology but was called to Rome not long afterwards to act as personal secretary to the Rector General of his society. Two years later he returned to Washington to complete his studies and was awarded a degree in psychology.
In 1975 he was appointed Director of Formation and Rector of the Church of Saint Sylvester in Rome. During his rectorship, in May 1975, he was also elected a member of the Provincial Council of the Irish Province of the Society. In 1981 he returned to Ireland to take up the post of Rector and Director of Formation at the Pallotine College in Thurles
While participating as delegate in the General Assembly of his Society in 1983, Fr Freeman was elected to the General Council of the Pallottines in Rome for a term of six years. In 1989 he was appointed Vicar General of the Society. Barely three years later, in 1992, Fr Martin Juritsch, the then Rector General of the Society fell gravely ill and Fr Freeman was elected to succeed him at an Extraordinary General Assembly. He was re-elected for a second six year term in 1998.
In 1994 Fr Freeman took part as an ‘auditor’ in the 1994 Synod of Bishops, dedicated to the theme of the religious life. During his term as Rector General, on 28th October 2003, the Pallottine Family, known as “Union of the Catholic Apostolate”, was declared a ‘Public and International Association of the Faithful’ by the Pontifical Council for the Laity. At an international Assembly of the Union held in Rome in December 2005, Fr Freeman was unanimously re-elected President of their General Co-ordination Council for a term of three years.
At the conclusion of his second term as Rector General of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, Fr Freeman spent a year with the Irish Pallottine community at Saint Sylvester’s in Rome after which, on 7th October 2004, he was appointed Parish Priest of the Church of St Vincent Pallotti at Pietralata in Rome.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce