Congratulations are due to Msgr. James Conley. His Holiness Benedict XVI recently appointed him as the auxiliary bishop to Archbishop Chaput in Denver.

I met Msgr. Conley at a café outside the Vatican in 2006 (a couple blocks east of St. Anne’s Gate). I was wearing clerics in those days as an Anglican clergyman. The conversation turned to John Henry Newman and within twenty-four hours, Msgr. Conley arranged for me to speak with Cardinal Baum about converting the Catholic Church.

So while Msgr. Conley helped to lead me out of the Episcopal Church, he himself is now becoming truly episcopal, in the sense that he is now becoming a Catholic bishop.

He is a fine man and he will surely be a blessing to the faithful of Denver.