1. Leo William Cushley was born on 18 June 1961 and is a Scottish Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh since 2013.
22 Facts About Leo Cushley
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Leo Cushley previously served as head of the English language section of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
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Leo Cushley was born on 18 June 1961 in Wester Moffat Hospital, Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, the first child of Bill and Eileen Cushley; he has a younger brother and a younger sister.
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Leo Cushley attended All Saints' Primary School, Coatdyke, before finishing his primary education at St John the Baptist's Primary School, Uddingston.
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Leo Cushley went on to attend Holy Cross High School, Hamilton, and St Mary's College, Blairs, Aberdeen.
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Leo Cushley was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Motherwell on 7 July 1985 at the Church of St John the Baptist, Uddingston, by Bishop Joseph Devine.
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Leo Cushley continued his studies in Rome being granted a Licentiate of Sacred Theology at the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Liturgy in 1987.
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Leo Cushley returned to the Diocese of Motherwell that year as an assistant priest at the Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Good Aid, where he remained until he was appointed curate at St Serf's Parish, Airdrie and concurrently chaplain to St Margaret's High School in 1988.
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Leo Cushley remained there until 1992 when he was sent to St Aidan's Parish, Wishaw as well as serving as chaplain to St Aidan's High School, Wishaw and chaplain to Our Lady's High School, Motherwell.
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In 1994 Leo Cushley was summoned to the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, studying diplomacy at the same time as studying for a doctorate in canon law at the Pontifical Gregorian University, which he earned in 1997.
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Leo Cushley formally entered the Diplomatic Service of the Holy See on 1 July 1997.
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Leo Cushley has served in the nunciatures of Egypt, Burundi, Portugal and the United Nations in New York and South Africa.
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From 2009 until 2013, Leo Cushley was head of the English-language section of the Vatican Secretariat of State.
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Under guidance from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Leo Cushley banned theologian Tina Beattie from lecturing to a lay Catholic group, the Newman Society, saying that "Beattie was known frequently to have called into question the church's teaching".
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In Lent 2015, Leo Cushley outlined his vision for the future of the archdiocese in a pastoral letter entitled "We Have Found the Messiah".
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Leo Cushley planned to restart a dormant office dealing with poor and marginalised people.
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Leo Cushley noted that Francis wants more done for poor people.
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Leo Cushley wanted to find out fast what the archdiocese does for destitute people, unemployed people, drug addicts and others who are traditionally helped.
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In February 2015 Leo Cushley came under attack in an op-ed article published in the Observer newspaper which noted that the Catholic Church in Scotland had not corporately joined Churches' Mutual Credit Union, a new credit union co-founded by other Scottish Christian denominations.
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In November 2022 the Scotsman reported that Leo Cushley had been accused of "deliberate financial mismanagement".
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Leo Cushley was accused of using "authoritarian" language to gain money from parishioners within his diocese.
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Leo Cushley said that the people of the Archdiocese wished to leave the matter behind.