Pope asked to make St Mary’s Dublin’s first Catholic cathedral in 500 years

Pope Leo XIV is expected to be asked to resolve one of the longest-standing consequences of the Reformation by formally designating St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral in Dublin as the city’s official Catholic cathedral.

The proposal, which marks the 200th anniversary of the Pro-Cathedral’s completion, would end half a millennium without a dedicated seat for Dublin’s Catholic archbishops.

Despite representing the faith of the majority in the Irish capital, St Mary’s occupies an unassuming site on Marlborough Street in the north inner city. The location was deliberately chosen in the early nineteenth century, when Catholics were still emerging from the shadow of the Penal Laws.