Christopher Butler

The Right Reverend Christopher Butler OSB
Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster
Church	Roman Catholic
Archdiocese	Westminster
In office	1966–1986
Other posts	Titular Bishop of Nova Barbara
Orders
Ordination	10 June 1933
Consecration	21 December 1966 by John Carmel Heenan
Personal details
Born	7 May 1902 Reading, Berkshire, England
Died	21 September 1986 (aged 84)
Nationality	English
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Previous post	Abbot of Downside

Basil Christopher Butler, OSB (7 May 1902 – 20 September 1986) was a convert from the Church of England to the Roman Catholic Church.

He was a Roman Catholic priest, the 7th Abbot of Downside Abbey, one-time Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation, an auxiliary bishop of Westminster, an internationally respected scripture scholar, a consistent defender of the priority of the Gospel according to Matthew, and the pre-eminent English-speaking Council Father at the Second Vatican Council (1962–65).

In 1928, after an illustrious career as undergraduate at Oxford University and a year teaching at Brighton College, Butler, baptized in the Church of England, was received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The next year, he became a monk of the Benedictine community of Downside Abbey – a House of the English Benedictine Congregation – and was ordained priest there in 1933. In 1946 the community elected him as their Abbot, which he remained for twenty years until his consecration in 1966 as Titular Bishop of Nova Barbara and Auxiliary Bishop to Cardinal John Carmel Heenan in the Archdiocese of Westminster.