Bishop Foley dies

The Rt Rev Brian Charles Foley, Bishop of Lancaster from 1962 to 1985, died following a short illness.  He was 89.

The Rt Rev John Brewer, Bishop of Lancaster since 1985, said:

"Bishop Foley was the last of the English and Welsh Bishops to have attended all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, where he spoke very movingly on the life and ministry of priests.  He was very insistent on the need for priests to be close to their people.  Home visiting was one of his passions, and to the end he visited assiduously in a deprived area of Lancaster.  A man of action as well as speech, he was much loved by his people, and a gentle shepherd of his flock for 23 years."

Bishop Foley's body will be received into Lancaster Cathedral at 6 pm on Tuesday 28 December, and will lie in state for 24 hours until a Reception Mass at 6 pm on Wednesday 29 December.  The funeral will take place on Thursday 30 December at 12 noon, with Archbishop Patrick Kelly as Chief Concelebrant.  His body will be buried in the Bishops' vault in the Cathedral cemetery.

Brian Charles Foley was born on 25 May 1910 at Ilford, Essex.   His first schooling was at the local Catholic school of Ss Peter and Paul.  He decided to be a priest at an early age and he studied at St Cuthbert's College, Ushaw, Durham, and then at the English College, Rome.  On 25 July 1937 he was ordained priest, and most of his early work was in the new estates and New Towns of the Brentwood Diocese.  His appointments as a priest included Shoeburyness, Romford and its surrounding areas, and Harlow.

He was consecrated bishop on 13 June 1962 and was appointed Bishop of Lancaster.  As a bishop he laid great stress on pastoral duties, urging the clergy to carry out regular house-to-house visiting in the parishes.  He also encouraged youth work by the establishment of a diocesan residential youth centre, Castlerigg Manor {Keswick).  He was noted for his keenness in setting up parishes as soon as possible in developing areas.  Vocations were encouraged, as were the needs of the foreign missions.  From 1962 to 1965 he attended all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome.

On the national level, Bishop Foley served on the Hierarchy Missions Commission, the Youth Commission, and for five years as a member of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.  He retired on 22 May 1985, and was succeeded by Bishop John Brewer.

Bishop Foley was a very keen reader, especially of history.  His strongest interest was in the history of the English Martyrs of the 16th and 17th centuries and of the Catholic Recusants - on which he was a well-respected authority.  Being one of the first to study county records on this subject, he founded the Essex Recusant Society, which has since been emulated by a number of other counties.  He was President of the Catholic Record Society from 1964 to 1979, and was President of the Catholic Archive Society since its inception in 1980.  Another of his great interests was Italy: its land, its people, and its literature.  He was also a follower of football and county cricket.

Since his retirement in 1985, Bishop Foley lived in Nazareth House in Lancaster and kept himself occupied through study and pastoral visiting in the Lancaster area.  In 1998, he published a book for the millennium, "The Story of the Jubilee Years 1300-1975".