Most Rev. James D. Conley, D.D., S.T.L., has served the Catholic Church in a wide variety of ways in his 28 years as a priest—as pastor, college campus chaplain, director of Respect Life ministries, theology instructor, Vatican official and bishop. For his episcopal motto, Bishop Conley, a convert to the Catholic faith, chose the same motto as the great 19th-century English convert, John Henry Cardinal Newman, “cor ad cor loquitur,” which means “heart speaks to heart.” On May 18, 1985, Bishop Conley was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wichita. On Feb. 9, 2001, Pope John Paul II named him “chaplain to his holiness” with the title monsignor.
On Sept. 14, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Conley as the bishop of the Lincoln Diocese in Nebraska, and he was installed as the ninth Bishop of Lincoln on Nov. 20, 2012.
