The Mt Rev Bernard Longley
Archbishop of Birmingham
Bishop Bernard Longley is the titular Bishop of Zarna. He was born in Manchester on 5 April, 1955.
Bishop Longley was ordained Bishop and appointed as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Westminster, on 24 January 2003. He is Head of the Department of Pastoral Affairs and Chair of the Diocesan Pastoral Board and has pastoral responsibilities for the Deaneries of Camden, Hackney, Islington, Marylebone, Tower Hamlets, and Westminster.
He is the Bishop of the National Day for Life and responsible for supporting the National Ministry to Travellers. Within the Diocese of Westminster, he is Chairman of the Catholic Children’s Society (Westminster). In 2009, he joined the Department of Dialogue and Unity and became Co-Chair of English Arc (Anglican-Roman Catholic Committee); he was also appointed onto the national United Reformed Church-Roman Catholic Dialogue Group.
Bishop Bernard Longley studied at Xaverian College and the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and New College, Oxford. He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor for the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on 12th December 1981 at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, and was Assistant Priest at St Joseph’s, Epsom, and Chaplain to Long Grove and St Ebba’s Psychiatric Hospitals. He studied dogmatic theology at the Gregorian University in Rome from 1985 to 1987 and then from 1987 to 1996, he was on the staff at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, teaching dogmatic theology. In 1991, he was appointed Surrey Chairman of the Arundel and Brighton Diocesan Commission for Christian Unity and in 1996 became National Ecumenical Officer at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
In 1999 he was appointed Moderator of the Steering Committee of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and also Assistant General Secretary of Catholic Bishops’ Conference with responsibilities for Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs.
Bishop Longley authored the Catholic Commentary on the Agreed Joint Statement by the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission for Unity and Mission - ‘Growing towards Unity and Mission’ (2007)
On 1 October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Bishop Longley will succeed Archbishop Vincent Nichols as the Archbishop of Birmingham.
He was Installed ninth Archbishop of Birmingham at the Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of Saint Chad on 8 December 2009 - Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and one of the patronal feasts of the Archdiocese.
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