Resignation

On 27 September 2014, Conry announced his resignation as Bishop of Arundel and Brighton with immediate effect for having "been unfaithful to [his] promises as a Catholic priest" and bringing "shame" on the diocese and the Church. In his statement, he asked for prayer and forgiveness.^[4][5] He announced his resignation when it became apparent that the press was about to out the fact that he had been having an affair with an adult married woman. On 4 October 2014, Pope Francis accepted his resignation. He has not been laicized.^[6]

Contemporary society

Conry has said that society has lost its sense of the transcendent and urged Christians to "proclaim the gospel into a void that needs to be filled if we are to find our way again; there is a space in all people that can only be filled by God".^[8]

Young people

In an interview with The Catholic Herald newspaper published in December 2008, he was reported to have said that it does not make much sense to talk about salvation to young people "unless you speak in their own language."^[9]

He has criticised society's "moral confusion": "we preach a liberal attitude to relationships and allow the media and commercial interests to prey on our young people, so that they are turned into little adults long before their time. Then we shake our heads in dismay and shame when we learn that we have the highest teenage pregnancy in the EU, six times higher than Holland."^[8]

Confession

Conry has been critical of going to confession regularly, saying that, in his experience, people would always come back saying the same things week after week, suggesting that no interior conversion or repentance was actually taking place.^[9]

In a May 2009 pastoral letter, he urged a more adult approach to the sacrament of reconciliation: "Go to the priest and talk about these things, the way in which your relationship with God might have grown stale. Because sin is ultimately something that damages our relationship with God. It is not just breaking the rules."^[10]

In November 2009, he clarified statements in his May pastoral letter, following a complaint to the Holy See. He stated that, by suggesting Catholics speak to their priests about "the biggest obstacle" in their relationship with God, he was not suggesting an alternative to the traditional practice of confessing sins.^[11]

Tridentine Mass

He is reported to have stated that Summorum Pontificum does not suggest significant change because the Tridentine Mass caters for a small group of people. He added that he had never refused permission when a group of people asked if they could celebrate it in his diocese.^[9]

Date of Easter

Conry has argued against changing the date of Easter in a sense that would separate it from its Jewish roots of Passover, adding that it would be difficult to have all the different ecclesial communities to agree on a same date.^[12]

Civil partnerships

Conry has stated that the Catholic Church supports civil partnerships, because they can confer to couples, including homosexual couples, legal protection in matters such as inheritance. However, he has questioned the need to apply the term "marriage" to homosexual partnerships, saying that marriage as "the permanent union of a man and a woman" should be protected.^[13]