John Basil Meeking (19 November 1929 – 11 June 2020) was the 7th bishop of

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

from 1987 to 1995.

Career

Having been ordained as a priest in 1953, he was appointed as Bishop of Christchurch by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 30 March 1987 and resigned the see on 15 December 1995. During this time, among other apostolic works, he served as the chaplain to

Christchurch Hospital Christchurch Hospital is the largest tertiary hospital in the South Island of New Zealand. The public hospital is in the centre of Christchurch city, on the edge of Hagley Park, and serves the wider Canterbury region. The Canterbury District Heal ...

and represented the Catholic Church at the

National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC), is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the Uni ...

. From 1963 to 1966, he studied at the

Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas A pontifical ( la, pontificale) is a Christian liturgical book containing the Christian liturgy, liturgies that only a bishop may perform. Among the liturgies are those of the ordinal (liturgy), ordinal for the ordination and consecration of dea ...

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, following which he was appointed to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in Rome, where he served for eighteen years. Bishop Meeking died in Christchurch on 11 June 2020, aged 90, after what was reported as a "recent period of ill-health".

Notes

External links

Catholic Hierarchy website, "Bishop John Basil Meeking"
(retrieved 28 January 2011). 1929 births 2020 deaths People educated at St Bede's College, Christchurch Holy Cross College, New Zealand alumni 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in New Zealand People from Ashburton, New Zealand Roman Catholic bishops of Christchurch {{NewZealand-RC-bishop-stub