By Michael Doyle
Reference: Interview with Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald by Ruth Gledhill, The Tablet 23.03.2025

Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald

Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald was born in Walsall in August 1937. He was one of four children – two girls and two boys – whose parents came from County Cork, Ireland. Both his parents, Dr Nora and Dr Tom were GPs in Walsall for many years. They were my family’s Doctors, and I remember them as kind and caring people.

Michael Fitzgerald entered the White Fathers junior seminary at the age of 13. From 1957 to 1961 he pursued his theological studies in Carthage, Tunisia where he learnt Arabic. He was ordained in 1961 and was sent to study theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

In 1961, I was present as an altar server with the late Canon John Gunn who was MC when Fr Michael celebrated his first Mass in Walsall at St Mary’s The Mount.

After teaching in various parts of Africa, including parish works in Sudan, he returned to Rome where he served six years as a member of the General Council of Missionaries of Africa in Rome.

In 1987, Fr Fitzgerald was appointed Secretary for non-Christians which later became the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. 

He became a Bishop in 1991 and in 2002 he became Archbishop. In 2006, he was appointed an Apostolic Nuncio in Egypt and delegate to the League of Arab States.

On his retirement in 2012, he settled in the community of the Missionaries of Africa at St Anne’s in Jerusalem, before returning to England in 2018. He was created a Cardinal by Pope Francis in 2019.

Although Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald will not be able to vote in the next Conclave due to being over the age of 80, he will be able to take part in the formal meetings to discuss what sort of leader is needed by the Church in the future.

It is interesting to note that someone born in Walsall has achieved so much on the international religious stage and is still, at the age of 87, in the service of the Holy Mother Church.

Read The Tablet interview

Photograph courtesy of the Catholic Bishops' Conference