| Rt Revd Crispian Hollis | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Portsmouth | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| See | Portsmouth, England |
| In Office | 5 May 1987 — present |
| Predecessor | Rt Revd Anthony Joseph Emery |
| Successor | incumbent |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 November 1936 Bristol, England |
Roger Francis Crispian Hollis (born 17 November 1936, in Bristol) is the Bishop of Portsmouth for the Catholic Church. His parents were Christopher Hollis (1902–1977), the author and parliamentarian, and Madeleine Hollis (née King).
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Bishop Crispian Hollis has a colourful family background. Both his parents were received into the Roman Catholic Church. He is surely unique among Catholic bishops in being the grandson of an Anglican Bishop, George Arthur Hollis (1868–1944), vice-principal of Wells Theological College and later bishop-suffragan of Taunton, and the nephew of another, the Right Revd. Arthur Michael Hollis, Bishop of Madras 1942-1954.[1]
Having worked as a lecturer of Church History at the United Theological College, Bangalore, 1955–1960, Bishop Arthur Michael Hollis, served in his last years as Rector of Todwick, and Assistant Bishop within the Diocese of Sheffield. Bishop Crispian, on the other hand, was the son of Bishop Arthur's brother, Christopher Hollis, an Eton and Balliol educated writer, wartime Royal Air Force intelligence officer, and later Tory Member of Parliament for Devizes. Christopher Hollis was a friend of Ronald Knox and Evelyn Waugh and in 1924 converted to Roman Catholicism, as Knox had already done and as Waugh did later. Not only that, but Bishop Crispian’s uncle, after whom he was named, was Sir Roger Henry Hollis, another son of Bishop George Hollis, and younger brother to Bishop Crispian Hollis’ father Christopher. Roger, described by Evelyn Waugh as ‘a good bottle man’, abandoned studies at Worcester College, Oxford for a wandering life that led him, like Bishop Crispian’s father Christopher, into the intelligence world. Roger joined MI5 (the Security Service) shortly before World War II, and in 1956 became Director General, sadly exciting suspicions of his being a Soviet agent and mole, codenamed “Elli”, though various investigations, including the lengthy Trend Committee of the 1970s under Lord Trend, decided the allegations inconclusive, neither denying nor confirming them. Bishop Crispian Hollis’s younger cousin, Adrian Hollis, son of the supposed mole Sir Roger Henry Hollis, is a Grandmaster of correspondence chess, and was British Correspondence Chess Champion in 1966, 1967, and 1971.
Crispian Hollis was educated at Stonyhurst College, where his father had once taught, and did his national service in the Somerset Light Infantry, serving in the United Kingdom and Malaya. In 1956 he went up to Balliol College, Oxford to read Modern History and graduated in 1959. In that year he went to Rome to start training for the priesthood, reading Philosophy and Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University as a member of the Venerable English College, and obtaining the Licence in Sacred Theology in 1966.
He was ordained a priest on 11 July 1965, about the same time that his uncle Roger took early retirement.
After one year as a curate at Christ the King, Amesbury, Wiltshire, Crispian Hollis was posted to the Old Palace, which housed the Catholic Chaplaincy in University of Oxford. There he worked from 1967–1977, first as Assistant to Father Michael Hollings, then as Chaplain. In 1977 he was appointed Catholic Assistant to the Head of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC, a responsibility that ensured him a lifetime of contacts with the media.
In 1981 he was appointed Administrator of Clifton Cathedral in Bristol and Vicar General of the diocese of Clifton, with special responsibility for ecumenical affairs. While still in this post, he was appointed a member of the IBA's panel of Religious Advisers and in 1986 became a member of CRAC (the Central Religious Advisory Committee) for the BBC and the IBA.
In February 1987 he followed in the family footsteps when, like his grandfather, and his uncle, he was appointed as auxiliary bishop (or suffragan bishop) to the flamboyant Archbishop Maurice Noël Léon Couve de Murville of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Bishop Crispian was given special responsibility for the Oxfordshire area. This was not to last, for he was installed as Bishop of Portsmouth on 27 January 1989.
He has been Chairman of the Catholic Media Trust and also Chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Europe. He is member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in the Vatican. He is Chairman of the Bishops' Conference Department of Mission and Unity, Representative for the Bishops' Conference of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and a Member of IARCCUM (International Anglican Roman Catholic Committee for Unity and Mission). He is said to enjoy cricket and golf and, in the family tradition, to take a very keen interest in current affairs.
Holy Trinity Monastery, East Hendred, a monastery of contemplative Benedictine nuns[2] situated in the Vale of White Horse, Oxfordshire,[3] and part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth was founded by Bishop Hollis in 2004.
The road outside Bishop's House, Portsmouth and St John's Cathedral was re-named Bishop Crispian Way on Sunday 3 April 2011, to mark his forthcoming retirement after 22 years service. At the time, Bishop Crispian said: 'I am overwhelmed by the honour that is being done to me by the renaming of what I might call our section of Edinburgh Rd. As far as I know, no such honour has been done to any of my predecessors and I am still at a little bit of a loss to know what I have done to deserve this honour. I have now lived in the city of Portsmouth for nearly 23 years and I have come to love it as my home. I have always tried to engage myself in the life of the wider community of the city and when the time comes for me to leave, I will do so with great sadness.' [4]
Bishop Crispian actively encourages people to travel to Lourdes and indeed he has a great attachment to Lourdes, first going there in 1967 as Chaplain with the Oxford University Pilgrimage and then going annually with them until 1981. On returning to the Diocese of Clifton he travelled with the Clifton Pilgrimage each year up until 1986 and with the Portsmouth Diocese since 1987.
Portsmouth Diocese together with the Dioceses of Clifton, East Anglia, Northampton and Southwark, plus Stonyhurst College travel each year with the Catholic Association Pilgrimage to Lourdes. Bishop Hollis is the Patron of the Catholic Association Hospitalité.[5]
Bishop Hollis has been criticized for his toleration of brothels.[6] In other political subjects, he supported Barack Obama's candidacy for President of the United States in 2008.[7].
In November 2011, the High Court ruled that Roman Catholic priests were not self-employed, as had been argued by lawyers acting for Bishop Hollis[8]. The ruling refers to a civil action being brought by a 47-year old who claims that she was subjected to repeated sexual assault in a care home in the Diocese of Portsmouth. The "self-employment" defence had been put forward by the Diocese to justify the argument that a Roman Catholic diocese was not responsible for the actions of its priests.
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