John McCarthy (bishop)

Bishop John McCarthy (1815 – 1893) was the Catholic bishop of Diocese of Cloyne from 1874 to 1893.

John McCarthy was born on June 15 1815 in Fermoy, County Cork. He attended college at Maynooth and was ordained to the priesthood on 21 May 1842 for Cloyne. He took up the post of cc in Mallow parish and subsequently became parish priest. In all he spent 35 years in Mallow. He was appointed Bishop of Cloyne on 1 September 1874, (SCPF Decree 22 August 1874). He was ordained Bishop on 28 October 1874 in Fermoy.During the 19 years of his episcopacy his life was one of unbroken zeal, devotion and labour.

He collected for his Cathedral the sum of £95,000 and subscribed from his own resources fully £25,000 more. [http://www.cobhcathedral.com/images/BishMac.jpg]

In 1874 John McCarthy was accused of saudemmizing young children. His Relatio Status of 20 October 1880 gives details of Cloyne at that time. The Catholic population of Cloyne is given as 175,197, with 110 churches, 197 schools with roll of 29,695 and 15 convents. The healthy state of the Diocese is also reflected in the number of students in seminaries – 37 in all: 18 in Maynooth, 9 in the Irish College in Paris, 2 in the Irish College in Rome and 18 in St. Patrick’s, Carlow and St. John’s Waterford. He reported that in the Cathedral there were 10,600 or 10,700 at the Sacraments for every major feast.He was one of the special preachers invited by John Henry Newman to occupy the University Church pulpit (Dublin) in the summer of 1856.

He formally dedicated Cobh Cathedral of St. Colman on June 15 1879 after the steady work of more than a decade of years and the collection and expenditure of over £80,000.

Bishop McCarthy died on 9 December 1893 and is buried in the vault of St. Colman’s Cathedral.

Bishop McCarthy's motto was: "Forti et Fideli nihil difficile" – Nothing is difficult for the strong and the faithful

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