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Visit Of Archbishop Conti To St Joachim's, Wick - 9 June 2002

Archbishop Mario Conti paid a private visit to Wick where he was parish priest from 1962 to 1977.  He was warmly welcomed by people on Caithness who laid on a small lunch after mass.  A cake was also produced to celebrate his silver jubilee and he blew out the candles with some younger church members.

     

The new leader of the Roman Catholic church in Scotland was installed in Glasgow on 22 February 2002

The Most Rev Mario Conti, succeeded Cardinal Thomas Winning, who died in June 2001.

Biography
Mario Joseph Conti, 67, was born in Elgin, Moray and educated at the town's St Marie's Convent and Springfield School.

He entered the Minor Seminary of St Mary's College, Blairs, and in 1952 was sent to the Scots College in Rome to study for the priesthood for the Diocese of Aberdeen.

The Archbishop, who has one sister, Stella Minihan, who lives in England, gained a licence in philosophy in 1955 and also in theology in 1959 from the Gregorian University in Rome.

He was ordained priest on 26 October 1958, by Archbishop Luigi Traglia. After completing his studies the following year, he was appointed assistant priest at St Mary's Cathedral in Aberdeen, where he remained until he was appointed parish priest of St Joachim's in Wick, and St Anne's in Thurso, in 1962.

Bishop Conti was nominated Bishop of Aberdeen on 28 February 1977, and was ordained by His Eminence Gordon Cardinal Gray, Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, at Aberdeen on 3 May 1977.

At the time of his nomination he was a member of both the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for the Cultural Heritage of the Church. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, president of the Commission for Christian Doctrine and Unity of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and president of its Heritage Commission. He was also a member of the Catholic Bishops' Joint Committee for bio-ethics and the central council of Action of Churches Together in Scotland, as well as president of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.