Mr Paul Barber, currently the Director of Education for the Diocese of Westminster has been appointed as the new Director of the Catholic Education Service.

Commenting on the appointment, Bishop Malcolm McMahon, Chairman of the Bishops’ Conference Department for Education and Formation, and the Chair of the Catholic Education Service, said: ‘I am delighted that Paul Barber has accepted the appointment of Director of the Catholic Education Service. He will bring to the post his considerable experience and a proven track record of commitment to the furtherance of the Church’s vision for Catholic education.’

Mr Barber will take over after Easter 2013 from Monsignor Marcus Stock who has been the Acting‐Director of the Catholic Education Service since November 2011.

ENDS

Short Biography:

Paul Barber MA (Cantab), MA (Canon Law), JCL

Paul Barber is the Director of Education for the Diocese of Westminster, a post he has held since 2003.

Paul read Law at Jesus College, Cambridge, won an Exhibition to the Middle Temple and was called to the Bar in 1992. He taught law at Sussex University, King’s College, London and Westminster University, where he was also a Visiting Fellow. He has studied canon law at Cardiff, Heythrop College (MA with distinction) and Louvain (JCL summa cum laude) where he is currently undertaking a doctorate on temporal goods in the Church in England and Wales.

Paul served as the national Legal Officer for the Catholic Education Service for five years before moving to the Diocese of Westminster. He is a committee member both of the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland and the Ecclesiastical Law Society, and a member of the Editorial Board of the Christian Law Review “Law and Justice”. He is frequently involved in legislation policy at national and European level, and is a member of the Legal Affairs Commission of the Commission of Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union. His current research interests include the canon law of education, jurisdiction and comparative canon law.