On the website of the Diocese of Portsmouth, there is a video of Bishop Philip Egan delivering his October 2016 pastoral letter on the future of the Catholic schools under his charge.
A casual visitor to the site could be forgiven for thinking that here was a bishop of England and Wales straight from central casting. The 61-year-old Egan is unassuming in manner and appearance: he has the white hair, ruddy face, soft northern vowels and Irish surname of countless pleasant-but-ineffective British Catholic prelates since time immemorial.
