Guest Speaker: Bishop Peter Collins

Theme: As 11 February is the World Day of Prayer for the sick – Our Lady of Lourdes. “The Lessons of Infirmity”.

Bishop Peter Collins is a native of Wales and was ordained to the priesthood within the Archdiocese of Cardiff on the 14^th July 1984, having studied at Valladolid, Madrid and Salamanca in Spain.

He served for five years as Vice Rector of a Major Seminary in Spain. He was the founding Director of the Diaconate Programme within the Archdiocese of Cardiff, serving in this capacity for fifteen years. In 1994 he attended the first National Conference on Safeguarding organised by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and since that time has held a variety of roles and responsibilities within the sphere of safeguarding, both national and diocesan.

He led the diocesan Commission for Education for fifteen years. His pastoral appointments included eighteen years as Dean of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Cardiff. Pope Francis appointed him as the Fifth Bishop of East Anglia in the autumn of 2022, the Episcopal Ordination and Consecration being celebrated on the 14^th December 2022 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Norwich.