Efforts by the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin to upgrade St Mary’s Pro Cathedral on Marlborough Street to basilica status, while converting St Andrew’s on Westland Row into its primary cathedral, have been abandoned. The news arrived on Monday from the Archbishop of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, who expressed his intent to seek Pope Francis’ approval to designate St Mary’s as the main church of the archdiocese and St Andrew’s as a subordinate basilica. This marked part of a two-pronged scheme for Dublin’s centre, which also covered St Andrew’s transformation as the second facet of the strategy. According to Archbishop Farrell, this plan signifies the unique communities’ diverse economic and social activities across the northern and southern regions of Liffey.
In the previous year in June, the Archbishop had revealed his intention to seek approval from the Vatican to amplify the Pro Cathedral (located north of Liffey) to a basilica and retask St Andrew’s (situated south of Liffey) as Dublin’s cathedral. This intended amendment was triggered by the constraints concerning St Mary’s premises and complexity, he explained. The ‘pro’ prefix that the two-century-old St Mary’s carries denote its provisional state until a new Catholic cathedral is erected in Dublin.
This declaration instigated public objections, especially from Dublin’s northern inner city residents, who construed this as a reduction in their local cathedral’s status. The issue found its way to Dublin City Council meetings.
On Monday, Archbishop Farrell proclaimed the newly suggested two-pillar approach to be about the pastoral engagement that St Andrew’s and St Mary’s will offer, notably not about the structures or their statuses. Given their location, history, capacity and connections, both premises serve as suitable elements of the two-pronged strategy. Both churches boast enduring traditions of service to their local parish communities, the entire archdiocese and the urban cultural life, he added.