Micheál Ledwith
Irish former priest
Micheál Ledwith (whose first name is often reported as Michael) is a former Catholic priest of the Diocese of Ferns in County Wexford from 1967 to 2005.
Early years at Maynooth
After a promising academic start he was promoted rapidly and served for a time as dean of St Peter's Diocesan College in Wexford. In 1977 he was appointed to a senior lectureship in Dogmatic Theology at St Patrick's College, Maynooth under the college president, Dr Tomás Ó Fiaich. He remained at Maynooth for the next 16 years and advanced quickly up the ladder of offices, serving a term as dean of the Faculty of Theology, before being appointed to the chair of systematic theology and later a college vice-president.
In 1985 Dr Ó Fiaich, by then Cardinal Archbishop of Armagh and one of the trustees of Maynooth, approved his appointment to the post of president of Maynooth, which office carried an ex officio pro-vice-chancellorship of the National University of Ireland and membership of the Conference of the Heads of Irish Universities.
President of Maynooth
The presidency of Maynooth was, in 1985 when Ledwith was appointed to the role, a senior position within the Catholic Church in Ireland. Only 44, he proved a capable administrator at Maynooth; immediately prior to his resignation he presided over the separation of the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and St Patrick's College, Maynooth. He was regarded within the Church as a progressive and in 1988 he was seen as a serious contender for the vacant see of Dublin following the sudden death of Archbishop Kevin McNamara. His name was submitted to Rome as one of three possible candidates.
There was considerable surprise following the appointment of a University College Dublin academic, Professor Desmond Connell.
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This entry incorporates text from “Micheál Ledwith” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.