James Joseph McGuinness (2 October 1925 – 6 April 2007) served as the eighth Roman Catholic bishop of Nottingham from 1974 to 2000.

Priestly ministry

He was born in Derry City,

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, he was educated at

St Columb's College St Columb's College is a Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Derry, Northern Ireland. Since 2008, it has been a specialist school in mathematics. It is named after Saint Columba, the missionary monk from County Donegal who founded a monast ...

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry, is the second-largest City status in the United Kingdom, city in Northern Ireland, and the fifth-largest on the island of Ireland. Located in County Londonderry, the city now covers both banks of the River Fo ...

, and the seminaries at Carlow College, and St. Mary's, Oscott . He was ordained

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

on 3 June 1950, aged 24, for the

Diocese of Nottingham The Diocese of Nottingham () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church in England and a suffragan of the Metropolitan Diocese of Westminster. The diocese covers an area of , taking in the English counties of Nottinghamshire (now exclu ...

by Bishop Edward Ellis. He served as bishop's secretary and eventually

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

in the diocese.

Episcopal ministry

On 2 February 1972, McGuinness was appointed

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of Nottingham and

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

Sanctus Germanus The Bishop of St Germans is an episcopal title which was used by Anglo Saxon Bishops of Cornwall and currently in use in the Church of England and in the Roman Catholic Church. The title is used by suffragan bishops of the Church of England, ...

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 23 March. On 31 October 1974, he succeeded to become Bishop of Nottingham, where he remained until his retirement in 2000. In 1980 the

Diocese of Hallam The Diocese of Hallam () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in England. The diocese comprises the whole of the City of Sheffield, and the surrounding towns of Rotherham, Doncaster, Barnsley, Chesterfield ...

was created and Bishop McGuinness contributed sixteen parishes from his diocese in north Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to the new diocese. An obituary noted that McGuinness served as Chairman of the National Youth Conference in his early years at the Bishops’ Conference and "played a great part in the visit of Pope John Paul II to Great Britain in 1982." He died on 6 April 2007, aged 81 and is buried in St Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham.https://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bmcgj.html

References

External links

Bishop James Joseph McGuinness biodataObituary
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGuinness, James 1925 births 2007 deaths Roman Catholics from Northern Ireland Christian clergy from Derry (city) Alumni of Carlow College Alumni of St Mary's College, Oscott 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in England Roman Catholic bishops of Nottingham People educated at St Columb's College