Joseph Walsh (1888–1972) was an Irish clergyman of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He served as

Archbishop of Tuam The Archbishop of Tuam ( ; ) is an Episcopal polity, archbishop which takes its name after the town of Tuam in County Galway, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The title was used by the Church of Ireland until 1839, and is still in use by the Cathol ...

from 1940 to 1969., ''Handbook of British Chronology'', p. 444. Born on 24 December 1888 in Newport,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, he was ordained to the priesthood on 21 June 1914. He was appointed an

Auxiliary Bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of the Archdiocese of Tuam and

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''Coela'' on 16 December 1937. His

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

took place on 2 January 1938. Two years later, he was appointed

on 16 January 1940. He participated in all the four sessions of the

Second Vatican Council The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...

, held between in 1962 and 1965. After 29 years, he resigned on 31 January 1969 and was appointed Titular Archbishop of ''Tubernuca''. He resigned the titular position in 1971, and died on 20 June 1972, aged 83.

Controversy

During his 29 years as first auxiliary bishop and later archbishop of Tuam between 1937 and 1969, hundreds of children were trafficked, neglected and mistreated in the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home, with mass graves directly linked to these institutions being uncovered in the early 2010's.

References

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External links

Archbishop Joseph Walsh of Tuam
(flickr) 1888 births 1972 deaths Christian clergy from County Mayo Christian clergy from County Galway Roman Catholic archbishops of Tuam Participants in the Second Vatican Council 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Ireland {{ireland-RC-archbishop-stub