Irish priest named COMECE General Secretary

An Irish priest who works for the Catholic Church in Britain has been named as the new general secretary of a high profile organisation of European Catholic bishops that monitors the EU.

Dublin-born Fr Patrick Daly will take up his three-year post with the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) in January 2013.  

COMECE represents the 26 Catholic bishops’ conferences of the European Union’s member states and is based in Brussels.

Fr Daly’s role will involve informing and raising awareness within the Catholic Church of developments on EU policy and legislation and maintaining regular dialogue with the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.  

He is the second Irish priest to hold this prestigious position, and his appointment is being seen as recognition of the Irish Church’s contribution to the European project.

One of his predecessors as COMECE secretary general is the current bishop of Down and Connor, Noel Treanor, who was first appointed to the position in 1993 and was re-appointed for several successive terms until he was named as bishop in 2008 by Pope Benedict.

Ordained in 1991, 61-year-old Fr Daly is currently based in Birmingham.  He went to school in Sligo and later attended Clongowes, the prestigious Jesuit boarding school in Co Kildare.  

He has a doctorate in medieval history and his career to date has included lecturing and chaplaincy work at universities such as St Mary’s College Oscott and the University of Wolverhampton and St Aloysius in Brussels, as well as parish work and prison chaplaincy in the Britain.

He worked before for COMECE between 1992-2002 and is fluent in French, Dutch, Italian and German.