Road honour for Stonyhurst alumnus - and Bishop

The road outside Bishop's House, Portsmouth and St John's Cathedral was re-named Bishop Crispian Way on Sunday, to mark his forthcoming retirement after 22 years service.

The road naming was a surprise for the Bishop and was revealed to him after Mass on Sunday morning by the Leader of Portsmouth City Council, Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson.

Bishop Hollis, who was educated by the Jesuits at Stonyhurst College, was installed as the seventh Bishop of Portsmouth on 27 January 1989.

Bishop Crispian said: 'I am overwhelmed by the honour that is being done to me by the renaming of what I might call our section of Edinburgh Rd.  As far as I know, no such honour has been done to any of my predecessors and I am still at a little bit of a loss to know what I have done to deserve this honour.

'I have now lived in the city of Portsmouth for nearly 23 years and I have come to love it as my home.  I have always tried to engage myself in the life of the wider community of the city and when the time comes for me to leave, I will do so with great sadness.

'But I don't want to dwell on that today.  Suffice it to say that I thank the Leader of the Council and his colleagues for the honour that they do me and the honour that they do to the whole diocese at the heart of which is our great city of Portsmouth.'