A graduate of Mount St. Mary’s University, Emmitsburg, has been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Denver.
Monsignor James D. Conley, 53, is the 49th Mount graduate to be appointed a bishop and is a member of the class of 1985. The Kansas native converted to Catholicism 33 years ago and has been a priest for 23 years.
Currently pastor of Blessed Sacrament in the diocese of Wichita, Kansas, he previously served the Holy Father for 10 years as an official in the Vatican Congregation for Bishops in Rome.
The Mount is often referred to as the “cradle of bishops” for the large numbers of graduates who have joined the hierarchy of the church as bishops, archbishops and cardinals.
Denver Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., ordained the new auxiliary bishop during a Mass of Episcopal ordination May 30 in the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver.