James D. Conley

James Douglas Conley (born March 19, 1955) is an American Catholic prelate serving as bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska. He served as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Denver in Colorado from 2008 to 2012.

Biography

Early life James Douglas Conley was born on March 19, 1955, in Kansas City, Missouri, to Carl and Betty Conley. He was raised in a Presbyterian family and has one adopted sister, Susan. Conley is partly of Wea Native American descent through his paternal grandmother's family. The family moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1957 and to Arvada, Colorado, in 1959.

Conley attended Hoskinson Cottage School in Arvada before moving to Overland Park, Kansas at age eight. Conley graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, in 1973, and then entered the University of Kansas (KU) in Lawrence, Kansas. Due to his Native American heritage, the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs paid for a portion of his college education. Conley studied in KU's Integrated Humanities Program, whose courses on Greek and Roman classics led him to convert to Catholicism during his junior year of college on December 6, 1975. After his 1985 ordination, the diocese assigned Conley as associate pastor at St. Patrick Parish in Wichita.

In 1989, Conley went to Rome to attend the Alphonsian Academy of the Pontifical Lateran University. He received a Licentiate in Moral Theology in 1991. His parents converted to Catholicism in 1991; Conley administered the sacraments of baptism and confirmation to them. In September 2011, when the Vatican appointed Chaput as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Conley was named apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Denver. He fulfilled this responsibility until July 2012, when the Vatican named Bishop Samuel Aquila as the new archbishop of Denver.

In 2003, the diocese had participated in the first audit of implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. However, Bruskewitz later declined to participate in later audits, claiming that he was awaiting refinements to the audit process. In 2015, Conley announced that the diocese would fully participate in the charter audits.

On December 13, 2019, Conley announced that he was taking a medical leave of absence to treat depression, anxiety, insomnia, and tinnitus. The Vatican appointed Archbishop George J. Lucas to serve as apostolic administrator of the diocese during Conley's leave of absence. Conley returned to active service on November 13, 2020.