08.05.2025

Church of Ireland Archbishops Welcome Pope Leo XIV

The Church of Ireland’s Archbishop of Armagh and Archbishop of Dublin have today (Thursday, 8th May 2025) shared the following words of welcome for Pope Leo XIV on his election in the Conclave in Rome.

From Archbishop John McDowell, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland:

“As we in the Church of Ireland prepared to meet in Synod not long after the funeral of Pope Francis who refreshed the whole idea of Synodality for the Roman Catholic Church and perhaps for the Universal Church, the Cardinal electors were meeting in the Sistine Chapel to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit on who should be a successor to Francis.  

“Today they have elected Pope Leo XIV and we rejoice with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters that a heavy responsibility has been discharged and can now be received with thanksgiving by the Christian world. I wish to pass on the good wishes of the Church of Ireland not only to Pope Leo but also to the bishops, priests and Catholic people of Ireland as they enter in closer communion and closer knowledge of their new Chief Shepherd.

“In any episcopal and pontifical succession beginnings are never completely new and endings are never entirely final, so we give thanks to God for the spiritual riches which Pope Leo has inherited and pray that he may know the presence of our common Lord and Saviour as he walks together in discipleship with all who are called by His Name.  I also share my best wishes with the Catholic faithful of the United States of America on the election of the first American Pope.”

From Archbishop Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin, Bishop of Glendalough and Primate of Ireland:

“The Christian world paid its respects both publicly and privately to Pope Francis. All of us were given opportunities locally and internationally to reflect on his strategic realignment of ecumenism and environmentalism through the lens of both human need and human excess. We will carry forward his plea that we care for the creation to which we all belong.

“It is with joy that we hail the election of Pope Leo XIV whom the Holy Spirit, through the conclave of cardinals, has discerned to be his apostolic successor in the faith. Pope Leo has spent his ministry to date serving in the United States and Peru and in the Roman Curia, and is already renowned for his contribution to the life of the Church.

“Pope Leo is in our prayers as he embarks upon his Godly task which is new to him and new to the world as the Bishop of Rome. We rejoice with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in Ireland as they prepare for a new chapter in their spiritual lives and as we prepare for this new chapter with them.”