Thomas Burns (bishop)

Thomas Matthew Burns, SM, BA, BD (born 3 June 1944) is a British Roman Catholic Bishop. On 16 October 2008 he was appointed as Bishop of Menevia by Pope Benedict XVI, becoming Bishop on 1 December 2008 when he took possession of his new See, on which day he ceased to be Bishop of the Forces.

Biography
Thomas Burns was born in Belfast, but his family later moved to Lancashire. After studying at St. Mary's College, Blackburn, a sixth form in an Exeter school, and a monastery in Paignton, Burns was ordained to the priesthood on 16 December 1971, for the Society of Mary.

He then did pastoral work, taught economics in Sidcup and Blackburn, and served as a chaplain in the Royal Navy. In 1986 he was commissioned as a full-time Chaplain in the Royal Navy. After training at HMS Raleigh and Britannia Royal Naval College he served as a Chaplain in HMS Drake and at Devonport Naval Base. From there he went to sea with the ships of the first Flotilla (to the Falklands, the Gulf and the Caribbean), and then joined the Chaplaincy Team in Britannia Royal Naval College Dartmouth.

On leaving the Navy in 1992, he took up an appointment as Bursar General at the Marist Fathers' Headquarters in Rome but subsequently rejoined the Royal Navy in January 1994. His first appointment was again to sea, for a period of 18 months, when he joined the staff of the Initial Sea Training Department in the newly created post of Chaplain to the Ships embarking Officer Cadets for their first experience of seagoing life. After completing the Initial Staff Course at Greenwich Royal Naval College, he proceeded to Portsmouth, where he headed an ecumenical team working in HMS Nelson and the Naval Base.

On 24 May 2002, he was appointed to head the military ordinariate of Great Britain, the Bishopric of the Forces. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 18 June from Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, with Bishop Francis Walmsley and Archbishop Patrick Altham Kelly serving as co-consecrators.

Burns has been a vociferous critic of the UK Ministry of Defence, complaining that troops in Iraq were "frustrated by restrictions, checks and delays that are placed on them but not on their opponents", and that their "activities are often jeopardised by poor equipment, outmoded vehicles and inadequate apparel".

He also voiced criticism against Harriet Harman MP's Equality Bill, which helped lead to its withdrawal, Bishop Burns felt that it would force the Catholic Church to govern itself as an industry or business, employing priests as employees, when in fact, the Church looks upon its priests as "Brothers of Christ".