Bishop resigns, saying “I’ve been unfaithful to my promises as a Catholic priest”

This doesn’t happen very often.

Details: 

An English bishop has announced his resignation after disclosing that he has been unfaithful to his vows.

Bishop Kieran Conry made the announcement in a letter to be read out at Masses in his Diocese of Arundel and Brighton this weekend.

He apologised for being “unfaithful to my promises as a Catholic priest”.

In the letter Bishop Conry, 63, said he had not been involved in any criminal behaviour and asked for his flock’s prayers.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said: “This is a sad and painful moment. It makes clear that we are always a Church of sinners called to repentance and conversion and in need of God’s mercy. All involved in this situation are much in my prayers today.”

Bishop Conry was ordained priest in the Archdiocese of Birmingham in 1975.

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