His Holiness Pope Leo XIV has today, 22 December 2025, appointed Canon Gerard Bradley as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Southwark.
Welcoming the news, the Most Reverend John Wilson, Archbishop of Southwark, said:
“It fills me with great joy to welcome Bishop-elect Gerard Bradley as Auxiliary Bishop of Southwark. I thank the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for his generosity and care in providing for the needs of our Archdiocese. Bishop-elect Gerard has served our Archdiocese with a prayerful and impassioned love of the Lord Jesus, and I know he will continue in this same spirit as a Bishop.
“Bishop-elect Gerard will be at the forefront of our evangelisation and missionary efforts, as we continue to work tirelessly to form a community of confident, joyful, and missionary disciples dedicated to leading people to Christ.
“I ask all in our Archdiocese to pray for him as he prepares to serve as a Bishop.”
Bishop-elect Gerard Bradley said:
“Every time the Lord calls you to a new role or ministry in His Church, whether lay or ordained, He does it is precisely to stretch your soul and deepen your faith beyond what you could ever have imagined or desired. He does it to open you up to new and greater levels of obedience and humility. With every change in our lives, the Lord is inviting us to draw closer to him because we are going to have to depend on Him more if we’re going to be sincere about renewing our service to Him.
“I carry these words of Our Lord in my mind before my ordination, which I’ve been thinking about since my teens: “Watch and pray”. Keeping my eyes open and fixed solely on Him, watching to catch glimpses of His presence, and to beg for His Gifts again and again.
“I thank the Holy Father for this honour to serve the Lord prayerfully and obediently in this new way. I also want to thank Archbishop John, and the many people: family and friends, parishioners and students who have loved and supported me, in many and different ways over the years.”
Bishop-elect Bradley’s Episcopal Ordination will take place on Monday, 2 February 2026, the Feast of the Presentation, at St George’s Cathedral, Southwark. More details will be provided in due course.
The Holy Father has assigned him the Titular See of Beverley, the birthplace in Yorkshire of St John Fisher, beloved to us all in our Archdiocese as a former Catholic Bishop of Rochester.
Bishop-elect Gerard Bradley recently shared his love of Eucharistic adoration in an interview with the Archdiocese, in which he said God “speaks to us in silence and we learn to listen to him and respond in a silent way”, describing silence as “the language of God”.
Bishop-elect Gerard Bradley graduated from King’s College London in 1983, having gained a Batchelor’s degree in Music.
Ordained priest in 1991 by Archbishop Michael Bowen, his first post was as assistant priest in St Thomas of Canterbury parish, Rainham. From 1995 he was Assistant Priest at St George’s Cathedral, and from 1998-2000 full-time hospital chaplain to St Thomas’ Hospital.
In September 2000, he was appointed to join the formation staff at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh with responsibility for the Spiritual Formation programme. He also served as house spiritual director, teaching Music and Liturgy.
He held these roles until 2017 after which he served as parish priest of St Mary, Help of Christians, Old Coulsdon. Bishop-elect Bradley has served as Episcopal Vicar for the South West London Area of the Archdiocese since September 2022.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark covers the London boroughs south of the Thames, the County of Kent and the Medway Unitary Authority. There are 20 deaneries with 175 parishes and 164 schools across the South East of England.
Website: rcsouthwark.co.uk
