Tonight’s reader: Bishop John McAreavey
Dr John McAreavey, Bishop of the Diocese of Dromore, was born at Drumnagally, Banbridge, and received his secondary education at St Colman’s College, Newry. In September 1966 he entered St Patrick’s College, Maynooth where in 1969 he finished a degree in modern languages and in 1972 a degree in Divinity.
John was ordained as priest for the diocese of Dromore in 1973 and returned to Maynooth after his ordination to complete a licentiate in Theology in 1974. He was a post–graduate student of Canon Law at the Gregorian University of Rome from 1974–1978 when he graduated with a doctorate in Canon Law.
From 1978–1979 Dr McAreavey was on the teaching staff of St Colman’s College Newry. In 1988 he was appointed Professor of Canon Law in the Pontifical University of Maynooth. While there he wrote widely on Church Law, publishing in 1997 The Canon Law of Marriage and the Family. He had served on the Editorial Board of the Irish Theological Quarterly from 1998. He is also a member of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland and the Canon Law Society of America. In 1994 he became secretary of the Greenhills Ecumenical Conference Committee.
Dr John McAreavey was ordained as Bishop of Dromore on 19 September 1999. He chose as the motto for his coat–of–arms, ‘sicut qui ministrat’, which translates as ‘one who serves’.