Mgr Roche has been General Secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales since 1996, and Mgr Stack has been Administrator of Westminster Cathedral since 1993. They will be of great assistance to me and to the Diocese of Westminster. I look forward to getting to know the priests, religious and people of the Diocese and to being of whatever service I can in my ministry as Auxiliary Bishop. In undertaking this ministry, I rededicate myself to the service of God and his people at this significant time in the life of the Church. Mgr Roche and Mgr Stack will be ordained bishops at Westminster Cathedral on 10 May 2001, at 12noon.
Biographical details follow.
Mgr Arthur Roche Arthur Roche was born on 6 March 1950 in Batley, West Yorkshire. Fr Roche was ordained on 19 July 1975 at St Joseph's Church in Batley Carr, by the Bishop of Leeds, Bishop Gordon Wheeler. He was assistant priest at Holy Rood, Barnsley, before becoming Bishop Wheeler's secretary in 1977. He was Vice-Chancellor of the diocese from 1979 to 1989, and the coordinator of the papal visit to York in 1982. In 1982, Fr Roche was appointed assistant priest at St Anne's Cathedral in Leeds, and, in 1989, parish priest at St Wilfrid's, Leeds.