Monsignor Conry succeeds Bishop (now Cardinal) Cormac Murphy-O´Connor, who was installed as archbishop of Westminster last year.
Kieran Thomas Conry was born Feb. 1, 1951, in Coventry, England. He earned degrees at the Gregorian University in Rome, and was ordained a priest July 19, 1975.
In 1976, Father Conry went to Cotton College, a junior seminary, North Staffordshire, to teach English literature and religious education. In 1980 he became the private secretary to the apostolic delegate (pro-nuncio from 1982), Archbishop Bruno Heim, and then his successor, Archbishop Luigi Barbarito. He was appointed monsignor in 1984.
Among his other duties, from 1994 to 2001 he was director of the Catholic Media Office in London, the press office of the Bishops´ Conference of England and Wales, and also editor of Briefing, the bishops´ official journal. In January 2001, he returned to the Birmingham Archdiocese as parish priest of St Austin´s, Stafford.
The Diocese of Arundel and Brighton covers East and West Sussex, and Surrey outside the Greater London boroughs. It has 116 parishes, 90 schools, 182 diocesan and 97 religious priests, and 16 permanent deacons.
