Fr Declan Hurley, Administrator of St Mary’s Parish, Navan will succeed Bishop Dermot Farrell as Vicar General of the Diocese of Meath.
Fr Hurley was born in June 1968 in the parish of Bohermeen, Co. Meath. Following the completion of the Bachelor of Arts in Maynooth, Bishop Smith sent him to the Institut Catholique de Paris for a year and subsequently to the Pontifical Irish College, Rome. Having been ordained a priest in his native parish in 1993, he returned to Rome to undertake the Licentiate, specialising in Biblical Theology.
His first assignment in the Diocese of Meath was as a Curate at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Mullingar in 1994. The following year he was appointed as Diocesan Secretary, a post he held for 8 years, while also remaining as a Curate at the Cathedral.
In 2003, Fr Hurley commenced a Doctorate in Sacred Scripture at the Institut Catholique de Paris, specialising on the Book of Job. He was also that year appointed by the Irish Episcopal Conference as Chaplain to the Irish Community in France and resident chaplain at the Centre Culturel Irlandais and the Chapelle Saint Patrick.
After 5 years, Fr Hurley returned to the Diocese of Meath, taking up an appointment first as Curate in St Mary’s Parish, Navan and, 2009, as Administrator.
This year Fr Hurley will celebrate the silver jubilee of his ordination to the priesthood.
