András Veres, Bishop of Győr, President of Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference

Veres András győri megyéspüspök, az MKPK elnöke
András Veres, Bishop of Győr, President of Hungarian Catholic Bishops' Conference
Photo: Merényi Zita/Magyar Kurír

András Veres (1959-), bishop, head of the Diocese of Győr, Chairman of the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference (MKPK), and Grand Chancellor of Pázmány Péter Catholic University.

He attended the Czuczor Gergely Benedictine High School in Győr between 1974 and 1978. While attending the seminary of the Archdiocese of Eger, he studied theology first at the College of Theology in Eger and then at the Academy of Theology as a student of the Central Seminary in Budapest. Between 1983 and 1988, he attended the Collegium Germanicum et Hungaricum in Rome and studied first at the Pontifical Gregorian University and then the Alphonsian Academy, where he obtained a PhD in moral theology. He was awarded a doctorate at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University’s Faculty of Theology in 1989 and was ordained a priest in Nyíregyháza on August 2, 1986. Between 1988 and 1990, he worked as a pastor in Mezőkövesd. Between 1990 and 1996, he was the prefect of the Eger Seminary and a professor of moral theology at the Eger Theological College, from 1994 to 1996 he was an associate professor at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University’s Faculty of Theology, and between 1996 and 1998 he was the rector of the Hungarian Papal Institute in Rome, and postulator of the beatification of László Batthyány-Strattmann. He served as the secretary of the MKPK from 1998 until 2006. In 1999 Pope John Paul II appointed him Titular Bishop of Cissa and Coadjutor Bishop of Eger. On January 6, 2000, the Pope ordained him bishop in St. Peter’s Basilica.

His motto is: Adduxit eum ad Jesum – He brought him to Jesus. (John 1:14)

On June 20, 2006 Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Diocesan Bishop of Szombathely. After Mihály Mayer, Diocesan Bishop of Pécs, resigned, he served as the sede vacante apostolic governor of the Diocese of Pécs between January 19, 2011 and April 25, 2011. He was elected Chairman of the MKPK on September 2, 2015 and was re-elected to the post in 2020. On May 17, 2016, Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of the Diocese of Győr. He was confirmed on July 16, 2016 in the Cathedral Basilica of Győr.