Pope recalls Archbishop Treanor’s ‘devout and faithful’ service

By Antonella Palermo

Pope Francis, in a message signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, expressed his gratitude for the “devoted and faithful” service of Archbishop Noël Treanor, Apostolic Nuncio to the European Union, who died on 11 August.

The funeral was held on Tuesday, 20 August, in St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast, with burial taking place in the cathedral’s Resurrection Chapel.

Bishop Alan McGuckian, SJ, Bishop of Down and Connor, celebrated the Requiem Mass, with the current Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Eamon Martin; and Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop emeritus of Armagh, concelebrating.

The Vatican was represented by concelebrants Cardinal Arthur Roche, the Prefect of the Dicastery for Divine Worship; along with representatives of the Secretary of State, including Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organisations; Archbishop Luciano Russo, Secretary for Pontifical Presentations; Archbishop Luis Mariano Montemayor, the Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland; and Archbishops Michael Crotty and Seamus Horgan, Apostolic Nuncios to Nigeria and South Sudan, respectively.

Ecumenical delegations representing the Presbyterian Church, the Church of Ireland’s Bangor Abbey, and the Methodist Church were also in attendance.

Gratitude for ‘devoted and faithful service’

In a message read during the funeral by Archbishop Montemayor, Pope Francis expressed his spiritual closeness to Archbishop Treanor’ family, in particular to his brother John and sister Mary, and extending to the clergy, religious, and lay faithful of the Diocese of Down and Connor.

“Expressing profound gratitude for Archbishop Treanor’s devoted and faithful service to the people of God in this local Church, to the wider Irish society, to the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union and, most recently, to the Apostolic See, His Holiness joins you in commending his soul to the loving mercy of Christ the Good Shepherd.”

Consolidating the relationship between faith and culture

In his homily during the Mass, Bishop McGuckian remembered Archbishop Treanor as a man capable of forging strong bonds of friendship, of keeping in touch with his family with affection and gratitude, and of teaching the younger generations the foundational values of Catholic social teaching in a changing world in need of justice, fraternity, and lay commitment in which he believed so much.

The bishop began his reflection by recalling several anecdotes from Treanor's adolescence – including the time the first television set appeared in the house, the management of which had sparked quarrels between the brothers, which prompted their father decide to remove it so as to avoid futile and harmful quarrels over material issues.

Bishop McGuckian used the story to emphasize the late Nuncio’s crucial and never-abandoned commitment to building a solid relationship between faith and culture. It was a commitment the Nuncio took from teaching of John Paul II, which he made his own: “Faith that does not become culture is not fully embraced, nor fully thought of, nor faithfully lived”.

Trust in every baptised person for the mission of the Church

Bishop McGuckian, who worked with Archbishop Treanor in Down and Connor in the Living Church project and later in the Irish Bishops’ Conference, especially on justice and peace, also highlighted Treanor’s true dream that “all the baptized, clergy, laity and religious working together for the mission of the Church and for the common good.”

Archbishop Treanor, he continued, “admired equally the priest who ministered with joy, the business person who worked and provided jobs that sustained many people in work, the religious who were to be found on the front lines of poverty and injustice, the teachers who strove to make a better society through Catholic education and to bring Christ to young people.”

Passion for the European project

Bishop McGuckian went on to note Archbishop Treanor’s deep commitment to the European project, “born out of a desire to forge a shared, life-giving culture in a situation of terrible division manifested at its worst in the horrible excesses of the Second World War.”

The late Nuncio saw “that the great leaders of the recently warring nations had striven to create something in common that was authentically secular and inclusive. They were convinced, as was Noël, that the most reliable source for the values that could carry such a bold project was the Gospel of Jesus.”

Protection of life and justice against all war

Recalling Archbishop Treanor’s 2018 pastoral letter to students and young adults – inspired by Pope Francis’ messages for peace – Bishop McGuckian revealed “a sense of his frustration that the glorious patrimony of Catholic Social Teaching is not constantly before our eyes and on our lips.”

This led to the conclusion of the Bishop’s homily, emphasizing “how important those medieval principles of ‘proportionality, justice, and protection of life’ are in relation to the wars raging before our eyes today, most especially Gaza and Ukraine.”