Thursday, October 01, 2009

Longley to Birmingham


Congratulations Bishop Bernard Longley

Vatican Imformation Service says:
- Bishop Bernard Longley, auxiliary of Westminster, England, as metropolitan archbishop of Birmingham (area 9,936 , population 5,333,791, Catholics 275,621, priests 391, permanent deacons 76, religious 669), England. The archbishop-elect was born in Manchester, England in 1955, he was ordained a priest in 1981 and consecrated a bishop in 2003.
I remember him from the seminary, gentle, kindly intelligent, patient and Catholic. Such a good choice.
And yesterday the Bishop for the Forces was ordained, Richard Moth, things are looking up.

3 comments:

Et Expecto said...

A very good appointment. He is orthodox and sympathetic to tradition.

He is also a musician, having studied at the Royal Northern College of Music before going to Oxford. This could be the start of improved liturgical music in the Birminghan Archdiocese and elsewhere. With his qualifications and coming from Westminster, the prognosis is good.

Crux Fidelis said...

According to this website http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/
he is younger than me. My boss, my PP, the leader of the Tory Party, the President of the US and now the Archbishop of Birmingham are all younger than me. That is depressing.

Sadie Vacantist said...

Is only 5% of Birmingham's population Catholic? I thought the national average was between 7-10% and the country's second city would reflect that.

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