"I'm So Glad My Affair Secret Is Out', Says Catholic Bishop As Husband Threatens to Sue Church Bosses Who "Knew for Years"

By Paul Bentley
Daily Mail
September 28, 2014

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2772987/I-m-glad-secret-says-affair-shame-bishop-Roman-Catholic-priest-talks-feeling-liberated-church-chiefs-accused-knowing-years.html

A leading bishop who has resigned in shame over an affair said last night that he was ‘relieved’ the secret was out.

Kieran Conry, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, confessed on Saturday to being an ‘unfaithful’ priest.

He also stands accused of a second affair with a married parishioner 20 years his junior, who spent at least three nights at his home.

Last night, Catholic Church leaders were accused of a cover-up, with a lawyer saying they have ‘known for years that the bishop has been having affairs’.

The lawyer is representing the husband of a 43-year-old parishioner to whom the bishop had become close, and claimed he was considering a possible High Court action against church chiefs.

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No secret: Bishop Kieran Conry with his female friend, whose face has been obscured for legal reasons

Bishop Conry, 63, said he felt ‘liberated’ knowing he no longer has to bear the burden of his guilt alone.

‘It has been difficult keeping the secret,’ he told the Mail. ‘In some respects I feel very calm. It is liberating. It is a relief. I have been very careful not to make sexual morality a priority [in his sermons]. I don’t think it got in the way of my job, I don’t think people would say I have been a bad bishop. But I can’t defend myself. I did wrong. Full stop.’

Bishop Conry – a leading religious figure close to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the head of the Church in England and Wales – became a bishop in 2001.

He is sworn to celibacy and has for years preached about the Church’s ‘moral authority’ and the importance of the sanctity of family life.

On Saturday, however, he resigned, admitting he had been ‘unfaithful to his promises’ in ‘a relationship of six years ago’.

He has also been seen in public more recently with a married mother of two, who was one of his parishioners. In a handwritten love letter dated earlier this month, he wrote to the 43-year-old woman: ‘It’s all right to say that [your husband] did bad things, but you knew that he didn’t love you.

‘You know (I hope) that I did. And I did, and do.’ The letter was signed: ‘your K xxxxxx.’

They are said to have been close for more than a year and reportedly exchanged hundreds of text messages. The married parishioner was seen spending at least three nights at the bishop’s home and they visited the British Museum, a Matisse exhibition and the ballet together.

They were also photographed walking together one Saturday carrying groceries. Bishop Conry and the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, allegedly became close after the woman and her husband started to take part in church activities last summer.

Transubstantiation: Bishop Conry gives mass. He confessed his misbehaviour in a statement yesterday

The bishop denied that they had a sexual relationship, although he admitted she had stayed at his house in Pease Pottage, West Sussex. In a statement read out at Masses yesterday, he said: ‘I am sorry to confess that, going back some years, I have been unfaithful to my promises as a Catholic priest.

‘I would like to reassure you that my actions were not illegal and did not involve minors. As a result, however, I have decided to offer my resignation.’

Yesterday, he denied to the Mail that Church leaders had known about his affair.

However, the mother of two’s furious husband has claimed they did know but took no action. The husband’s lawyer Clare Kirby said: ‘My client is considering pursuing a possible High Court action against the Catholic Church because they have known for years the bishop has been having affairs. If they had taken action, he almost certainly would not have lost his marriage.’

Last night, a spokesman for the Catholic Church declined to respond to allegations of a cover-up about the bishop’s love life.