Augustine Harris
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Styles of Augustine Harris |
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| Reference style | The Right Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Lordship |
| Religious style | Monsignor |
Bishop Augustine Harris (27 October 1917 – 30 August 2007) was a Roman Catholic Bishop of Middlesbrough and former Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool.
Thomas Augustine Harris was born in West Derby, a suburb of Liverpool, and was educated at St. Cecilia's Primary School and St. Francis Xavier's College, both in Liverpool. In 1933, he went to the Liverpool Archdiocesan Seminary at St Joseph's College, Upholland (which is no longer in existence) to study for the priesthood. On 30 May 1942, he was ordained by Archbishop Downey.
After six months as a curate at St Oswald's Church, Old Swan, Liverpool, he then served at St Elizabeth’s, Litherland (1943 to 1952), and then as Chaplain at Walton Prison. During his time at St Elizabeth’s he had an active Y.C.W. group and was chaplain to the local Catholic Social Guild. He was the English representative to the International Council of Senior Roman Catholic Prison Chaplains from 1957 to 1966.
He was a member of the Vatican Delegation to the United Nations' Quinquennial Congress on Crime in London (1960) and Stockholm (1965). Throughout his life, Bishop Harris maintained a personal interest in criminology and published a number of articles in this field.
On 11 February 1966, Augustine Harris was consecrated Bishop of Socia and Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool by Archbishop George Beck in the crypt of the then unfinished Metropolitan Cathedral. A few months later Archbishop Beck had a severe heart attack, so the new bishop had to carry the administration of the largest archdiocese in the country, and the preparations for the imminent opening of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Harris was the principal consecrator of the Cathedral during Archbishop Beck's infirmity. As the first Roman Catholic Cathedral to be built in the 20th century in England, the event attracted international importance; it was featured on European TV.
On 20 November 1978, Msgr. Harris was appointed as Bishop of Middlesbrough. It was Pope John Paul II's first episcopal appointment in the British Isles. Among his many projects in Middlesbrough diocese, Bishop Harris carried out a major reorganisation of Catholic schools and established four diocesan pastoral centres which have responsibility for assisting the renewal of parish community life. As Bishop, he produced pamphlets including This Decade is Forever for the Decade of Evangelisation, and Serve the Lord with Gladness (his own personal motto) as a reflection of his years in the priesthood.
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