Papal honour for director of Linacre Centre

Luke Gormally, Director of The Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, is being made a Knight of St Gregory today.

The papal award was requested by Archbishop Michael Bowen as President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and is being presented to Mr Gormally by Bishop John Jukes.

Archbishop Bowen said: "I am delighted that Luke Gormally's excellent service to the Bishops and to the Catholic Church is to be recognised in this way. Over the last twenty years, medical ethics in Britain have been challenged profoundly by new developments affecting human life at every stage. Throughout this time, the Linacre Centre, under Luke's direction, has provided an invaluable witness to the "gospel of life".

"Its international reputation testifies to the high quality of its work. On behalf of the Catholic Bishops, I am very grateful to Luke for his advice and expertise, and for his outstanding service to the Church." Luke Gormally has been director of the Linacre Centre since 1981.

"From its foundation by the Catholic Bishops in 1977 until then, he was its research officer. He had previously studied philosophy at Heythrop (Pontifical Athenaeum) and theology in the Benedictine community at Prinknash Abbey, Gloucester.

He has been a member of the Catholic Bishops' Committee on Bioethical Issues since 1984, and was elected a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1996. He will retire as director of the Linacre Centre at the end of this year, but will continue there as senior research fellow.

He is to be succeeded as director by Fr David Albert Jones OP. The Order of St Gregory the Great was established by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831, and is conferred on those who are distinguished for personal character and reputation, and for notable accomplishment. It is named after Pope St Gregory I (590-604).