Joseph Gray

Who was Joseph Gray?

Joseph Gray was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Bishop of Shrewsbury from 1980 to 1995.

Born in Finternagh, County Cavan, Ireland on 20 October 1919, educated at St. Patrick's College, Cavan, he entered the seminary of St Mary's Oscott, Birmingham, he was ordained to the priesthood on 20 June 1943. He pursued further study in Canon Law at the Dunboyne Institute, Maynooth College, earning his Licentiate in Canon Law in 1950, in 1959 he was invited to Rome, to study at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, where he wrote a thesis for his Doctorate in Canon Law.

He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Liverpool and Titular Bishop of Mercia on 19 December 1968. His consecration to the Episcopate took place on 16 February 1969, the principal consecrator was Archbishop George Andrew Beck of Liverpool, and the principal co-consecrators were Archbishop George Patrick Dwyer of Birmingham and Bishop Augustine Harris of Middlesbrough. Eleven years later, he was appointed the Bishop of the Diocese of Shrewsbury on 19 August 1980.

He retired on 23 June 1995 and assumed the title Bishop Emeritus of Shrewsbury. He died on 7 May 1999, aged 79.