Bishop Michael Router installed as new Bishop of Derry

Bishop Michael Router has taken up the reins of the Derry Diocese from his predecessor Bishop Donal McKeown.

A native of County Cavan, Bishop Router was installed in a ceremony in St Eugene's Cathedral on Sunday. He becomes the ninth Bishop of the Diocese since the Cathedral was opened in 1873.

Archbishop Eamon Martin, who has strong Carndonagh roots, led the installation ceremony in front of a packed Cathedral.

Bishop Router said he was delighted and honoured to become the new Bishop of Derry.

“I'm delighted to be in Derry,” Bishop Router said. “It's hard to believe that it's nearly two months now, or it is over two months, since my announcement as the Bishop of Derry.”

“I've been coming up and down here most weeks for a day or two days and the people have been exceptionally warm and welcoming and hospitable so I'm really happy to be here now and I really believe that this is a very special place and a very special diocese.”

“I'm truly honoured and privileged to be Bishop of this diocese and I look forward to working with the clergy and the people and getting to know everybody over the course of the coming months and years.”

Despite the excitement of taking over the Diocese, Bishop Router did admit to having some nerves on taking on the role.

“It was a little bit overwhelming when I heard the news first,” he said. “I was quite shell-shocked. Particularly when you're coming to a place that you don't know terribly well.”

“I'm a Cavan man originally and I've worked for the last seven years in Armagh. So I wouldn't know Derry terribly well. I visited maybe Derry city about five times in my life before this. I wouldn't know very many of the clergy or the people.”

“You know there's still a lot of challenges and there's going to be a lot of things I'll have to take on board right from the start so yeah from that point of view, there's always a bit of anxiety, but I'm looking forward to it now.”

“I'm looking forward to getting to know the people of Inishowen and North Tyrone and the Derry County area. There's a lovely mix in the diocese, which I'm quite looking forward to between the city life and then the rural country areas, which are very vibrant as well.”

“It's such a beautiful diocese geographically, with the Inishowen peninsula and the Sperrins. Even the drive up from Dundalk that I've been doing, driving across the Glenshane pass, I mean a spectacular countryside.”

Praising his predecessor, Bishop Router said he has “big shoes” to follow but will give it his all.

“We're all different people and we have different gifts and characteristics, but there is no doubt that Bishop Donal left a huge impression here around the city.”

“He is so well known. The day I was announced in the Cathedral, he brought me for a walk after lunch. I thought it would be just a half an hour down the street. It was nearly three hours because so many people stopped to talk to him and knew him, knew him by his name. He knew them as well, which was remarkable.”

“So I hope that, yes, I will get to know people around the city, but also we have to remember that this is a big diocese, a big geographical area, from Malin Head down to Bellaghy, you know, and down to Omagh and Drumquin and all that area.”

Acknowledging the challenges facing the church, particularly declining clergy numbers, Bishop Router said his priority would be to encourage more lay people to help the Church in whatever way they could.

“People are very worried when they see that there are fewer priests. They worry about what's going to happen to their own parish in the years ahead. 'Are we still going to have a priest in the parish?' 'Are the churches going to be closed?' All of those things are in people's minds and that's unfortunate because a parish is so crucial to the faith of most people. That's where they have their connection. That's where they have their roots.”

He continued: “I think one way of helping to keep the parish vibrant, to keep the parish alive, is to empower lay people to take on roles which previously maybe the priests were seen very much as the priests were, but can be done by lay people.”

Bishop Router was greeted at the door of the Cathedral by Dr Anne Friel, Chairperson of the Derry Diocesan Pastoral Council and Fr John Farren, chairman of the College of Consultors.

People from every parish in the Diocese carried banners of their parish name at the beginning of the ceremony.

Urris native Father Michael Canny, PP Waterside, read the Papal Bull and presented it to Bishop Router.