ISHOP GEORGE PATRICK DWYER, of Leeds, has been appointed Archbishop of Birmingham by the Holy See. He succeeds Archbishop Grimshaw, who died in March.
The appointment was announced in London by the Apostolic Delegation while the Bishop was in Rome at the Vatican Council. He has since returned to England and arrived in Leeds last Friday night.
It is not yet known when Bishop Dwyer will move to Birmingham. Plans for farewell and welcoming celebrations are now being made in both dioceses.
Bishop Cleary, auxiliary of Birmingham, returned on Friday with Bishop Dwyer. He has been in charge of the administration of the diocese since Archbishop Grimshaw's death.
Born 57 years ago in Manchester of Lancastrian and Irish parents, Bishop Dwyer spent his schooldays at St Bede's, Manchester, which claims him as one of its most illustrious alumni. He went to Rome where he read a brilliant course and stayed on after his ordination in 1932 to complete the newly established doctorate in Theology.
His traditional Roman education was off-balanced by his years as a graduate at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge, where he formed an acute appreciation of the English temperament. After taking a degree in Modern Languages he returned as French master to St. Bede's where he remained until after the war.
Helped reorganise
He then joined Fr. John (now Cardinal) Heenan to reorganise the Catholic Missionary Society. It is said that the new ideas and schemes of the resurgent society were tthe product of Cardinal Heenan's fertile mind, but that, in the final analysis, it was Dr. Dwyer who carefully weighed the pros and cons with deliberate Lancastrian sagacity before the details were finally worked out and the schemes set in motion.
They were regarded as the perfect combination in the critical postwar years. Dr. Dwyer succeeded Cardinal Heenan as Superior of the Catholic Missionary Society in 1951. While there he helped found the Catholic Enquiry Centre and wrote the first 21 leaflets for its correspondence course. Six years later he himself was consecrated Bishop of Leeds.
His main work in the diocese was connected with education—both on the building side, and in his support of revolutionary courses in youth leadership. He also built many new churches, promoted the unity movement, and appealed early on for volunteers for South America.
His care of seminarians and his desire to see their training brought into line with modern conditions caused him to reorganise the recruitment system and to evolve a new system of training in parishes through which the students are brought into early contact with the laity and their problems.
Well-known for his sermons, he was the first Catholic priest ever to preach on BBC-TV. And now he broadcasts frequently.
Original member
Bishop Dwyer was one of the original members of the pre-conciliar commission on diocesan government and the role of the bishop. He is president of the Liturgical Commission of the Roman Concilium, vice-chairman of the international liturgical commission for English-speakitig countries, and president of the Liturgical Commission for England and Wales.
He is the seventh Archbishop of Birmingham since the diocese was founded in 1850 after the restoration of the Hierarchy. He was also the seventh Bishop of Leeds.
The see of Birmingham has been vacant for nearly nine months. Bishop Dwyer's appointment now leaves a vacancy in Leeds. A new bishop will also have to be appointed in Portsmouth to succeed the late Archbishop King before the English and Welsh Hierarchy comes up to full strength.
Periscope. Page 5.