John Butler, S.J. (8 August 1727 – 20 June 1786) was an Irish

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest who was appointed as

Bishop of Limerick The Bishop of Limerick is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Limerick in the Province of Munster, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Church it still continues as a sepa ...

in 1778 and resigned the position in 1779 without ever being consecrated.

Biography

Father Butler was a member of the prominent

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

dynasty. he was related to James Butler the then

Archbishop of Cashel The Archbishop of Cashel () was an archiepiscopal title which took its name after the town of Cashel, County Tipperary in Ireland. Following the Reformation, there had been parallel apostolic successions to the title: one in the Catholic Church ...

and

Metropolitan Metropolitan may refer to: Areas and governance (secular and ecclesiastical) * Metropolitan archdiocese, the jurisdiction of a metropolitan archbishop ** Metropolitan bishop or archbishop, leader of an ecclesiastical "mother see" * Metropolitan ar ...

. This was a source of controversy as Father Butler was unknown in Limerick and it was thought that the Archbishop was using his position to gain an ecclesiastical office for a relative. Butler joined the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

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1745 and was ordained priest in 1753 (or 1758, sources differ). With the

Suppression of the Jesuits Suppression may refer to: Laws * Suppression of Communism Act *Suppression order a type of censorship where a court rules that certain information cannot be published * Tohunga Suppression Act 1907, an Act of the Parliament of New Zealand aimed ...

in 1773 he moved to England where he was appointed priest in

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

which was then in the Apostolic Vicariate of the Western District. Father Butler was very surprised to be nominated and initially refused the position. After rejecting the office Fr Butler received another letter informing him that his name had been sent to Rome for approval with the backing of three archbishops and twelve bishops, the Catholic peers of Ireland along with support from several prominent ecclesiastics and Catholic laymen from France. Approval had also been given by his own Ordinary Charles Walmesley Vicar Apostolic of the Western District.

Propaganda Fide The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for missionary work and related activities. It is also known by its former title, the Sacred Congregati ...

which was responsible for appointments of bishops in missionary territory initially rejected Butler's name because of his connection with the Jesuits but Pope

Pius VI Pope Pius VI (; born Count Angelo Onofrio Melchiorre Natale Giovanni Antonio called Giovanni Angelo or Giannangelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to hi ...

thought it was in the interest of the faith to appoint Butler and he overruled Propaganda Fide. Fr Butler reluctantly left his parish and went to the family home at Cahir. There he met the Archbishop and a representative of the clergy of Limerick. When the Bull of appointment arrived, however, Butler had second thoughts and he changed his mind. He wrote to the Archbishop and rejected the position. The following month he returned to Hereford where he lived out the remainder of his life.

References

External links

* https://archive.org/stream/irishecclesiast04unkngoog#page/n360/mode/2up * https://web.archive.org/web/20120203225516/http://oce.catholic.com/index.php?title=Irish_Colleges_on_the_Continent * http://www.okeefeclan.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=586:okeeffe-chalices&catid=29:ancient&Itemid=59 {{DEFAULTSORT:Butler, John 1727 births 1786 deaths 18th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland 18th-century Irish bishops Roman Catholic bishops of Limerick 18th-century Irish Jesuits