ARCHBISHOP Noel Treanor will be remembered as a "family man" and "much-loved friend of many people", mourners were told at his funeral mass in West Belfast.

The former Bishop of Down and Connor died suddenly at the age of 73 in Brussels, Belgium last Sunday, where he had been working as the Vatican’s apostolic nuncio to the European Union.

His funeral mass took place on Tuesday morning at Saint Peter’s Cathedral on the Falls Road where hundreds of people gathered to pay their respects.

Bishop Alan McGuckian, who conducted the service, said: "Here at his funeral Mass, we remember that Archbishop Noel was a family man and much-loved friend of many people.

"He was a very accomplished individual; a priest, a bishop, an archbishop, a papal nuncio."

Bishop Alan McGuckian also reiterated Archbishop Treanor’s commitment to his work within Europe, noting “many people” gathered in Brussels on Friday to pay tribute to his work in the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), Justice & Peace Europe and his most recent role as apostolic nuncio to the European Union.

“All of us who worked with him in all of these different arenas will have witnessed his teasing out, in very sophisticated ways, the essential link between faith and culture,” he added.

Bishop Noel Treanor passed away last week
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Bishop Noel Treanor passed away last week

“We all know about his deep commitment to the European project. That was born out of a desire to forge a shared, life-giving culture in a situation of terrible division manifested at its worst in the horrible excesses of the Second World War."

Archbishop Noel Treanor was born on Christmas Day in 1950 in Monaghan town. He grew up in the parish of Tyholland, where he attended Leitrim National School and St. Brigid’s National School before completing his early education at St. Mary’s Christian Brothers School, Monaghan. He pursued his third level education at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and in Rome.

He was ordained a priest in 1976 for service in the diocese of Clogher in St Macartan’s Cathedral, Monaghan.

In his years of service in Clogher he served as curate and hospital chaplain in Monaghan town and in Enniskillen, as Director of Adult Education and in 1986 as Coordinator the Diocesan Assembly of Clergy. He was a member of the Council for European Affairs of the Irish Bishops Conference.

He was appointed to the staff of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) in 1989.

In March 1993 he was appointed Secretary General of COMECE, a post he continued to hold until his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI as Bishop of Down and Connor.

He was ordained a bishop of Down & Connor in St Peter’s Cathedral in June 2008.

At the March 2018 plenary meeting of COMECE he was elected one of its Vice-Presidents and since October 2018 he served as President of Justice and Peace Europe.

In November 2022, Pope Francis appointed Archbishop Noel Treanor as Apostolic Nuncio to the European Union.