Leo XIV Promotes Irish Pro-Homosexual Bishop Who Wants Intercommunion with Anglicans
Niall Coll was born on 25 August 1963 in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland, as the eldest of four children.
After ordination to the priesthood in July 1988, he studied in Rome and and earned a Doctoral degree in Christology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.
Attack on "Tridentine" Heritage
In October 2022, Francis appointed him as Bishop of Ossory. In his first statement, he said:
"The four-century and more long dominance of the Tridentine pattern has left Catholics almost everywhere unfamiliar with discerning and negotiating possibilities for change in Church life.
But, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit, discern and change we must, in line with Pope Francis’ emphasis on the need for ‘synodality’."
On Inclusion of unrepentant homosexuals
In the ‘Pat Kenny Show’ on January 26, 2023, Bishop Coll was asked about Francis’ positive remarks on homosexuality, and he replied that he “very much welcomes the clarifications”: “Gay people, they're human beings and they're important to the life of the Church.”
He added that it is “so important to the teaching of Pope Francis” to “include all”.
Homily at an Anglican "Eucharist"
In January 2025, Bishop Coll gave a homily at an invalid Anglican service in St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny, and called it afterwards a most moving experience of spiritual communion, according to TheTablet.co.uk:
“That Anglicans and Catholics are not able to receive the Eucharist together yet is a matter of sadness.”
Commitment to 'Synodality'
Following Pope Francis's death, Monsignor Coll described him as a "kind, courageous and gentle pastor" in a statement, thanking God for "the great leadership he has given to the Church".
At a synodal meeting in Kilkenny on October 18, he said: “Our presence here today means that there are voices in Ireland attuned to the need to read the ‘signs of the times’ and anxious to follow the direction for renewal and reform that Pope Francis charted.”
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