He has been auxiliary bishop of Westminster since 1993. He succeeds Bishop John Brewer, who died last June.
Patrick O´Donoghue was born in Mourne Abbey, County Cork, Ireland, on May 4, 1934, and was one of five children of farmers Daniel and Sheila O´Donoghue. He was educated at Patrician Academy in Mallow, Cork.
He came to Britain in 1959 for seminary training, first at Campion House, Osterley, Middlesex, and from 1961 to 1967 at Allen Hall seminary when it was at St Edmund´s College, Ware, Hertfordshire. He was ordained priest for the Westminster Diocese on May 25, 1967.
On June 29, 1993, he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Westminster by Cardinal Basil Hume and appointed to the West London pastoral area.
Bishop O´Donoghue has been chairman of the Office for Refugee Policy of the Bishops´ Conference of England and Wales since 1993, and chairman of the Westminster Diocesan Pastoral Board since 1996. This year he was appointed a member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.
