On 23 November 2012, on the occasion of their autumn plenary, the bishops of COMECE appointed a new General Secretary, Father Patrick H. Daly, who commenced his work at COMECE on Friday 1 February. On his first working day, he stated:
(Credit: COMECE)
“Together with the team here at the Secretariat, I look forward to serving the Bishops of COMECE, the national conferences they represent, and in co-operation with the wide range of Catholic agencies and religious orders with an antenne here in Brussels, and together with our ecumenical partners, to articulating the Catholic voice and to facilitating the Christian contribution to the realization of the European project.
It is my hope that my long years living in continental Europe, my rich and varied pastoral experience as a diocesan priest in the UK, my previous involvement in the work and mission of COMECE will enable me to serve the Church in Europe and the European project itself in an open, positive and constructive way in the years ahead.”
Curriculum:
Patrick Daly was born in Dublin in May 1951, and grew up in Sligo. He received his secondary education from the Jesuits, studied at University College Dublin (UCD) and, thanks to a generous postgraduate scholarship from the Belgian (Flemish) Ministry of Culture, did a PhD in Medieval History at Louvain. Between 1981 and 1987 he worked as an interpreter on the staff of the European Commission. After four years as a student for the Birmingham Diocese at the Beda College, Rome, he was ordained priest by the late Archbishop Maurice Couve de Murville on 5 April 1991. Archbishop Maurice represented the English & Welsh bishops on COMECE in the 1990’s and, as of 1992, involved Fr Daly in this side of his work, both by allowing to accompany him to COMECE plenary meetings in Brussels and by involving him in the work of the European Affairs Committee of the English & Welsh Bishops’ Conference in London. After two years as a curate, from 1993 until 2013 Fr Daly was a full-time parish priest, first at St. Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, and since 1999 at St. Peter & St. Paul, Wolverhampton.