James Foley (bishop)

James Foley (born 19 July 1948) is an Australian prelate of the Catholic Church who was the Bishop of Cairns in Queensland from 1992 to 2022.

[citation needed] He received his episcopal consecration on 21 August 1992 in St. Monica's Cathedral in Cairns[3] from Archbishop John Bathersby of Brisbane.

[citation needed] In 2004 he joined four other Queensland bishops in a pastoral letter "Let the Many Coastlands Be Glad" that called for the protection of the Great Barrier Reef.

He called it a "healthy" process and said he was learning "disturbing" things about people he thought highly of decades earlier.

He said: "In almost 30 years in this position, I've never encountered such divisiveness and, dare I say, ignorance.... What worries me too, in these conversations, is that they seem to entail all sorts of other major conspiracy theories.

That year he was relieved of his positions with the Australian Bishops Conference, where he served on the Commissions for Catholic Education, for Evangelisation, Laity and Ministry; and for Life, Family and Public Engagement.