By CatholicPhilly Staff • Posted December 4, 2023

Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Arlington, will receive an honorary degree at the Concursus ceremony May 15, 2024 at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood.

Concursus is the Seminary’s annual graduation ceremony where academic degrees are awarded to seminarians, as well as religious and lay students, enrolled in its college and graduate college programs.

Bishop Burbidge will be awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, and will deliver the keynote address. This Concursus ceremony will be the last held on the Overbrook campus before the Seminary moves to its new home in Lower Gwynedd in Aug. 2024.

Born in Philadelphia, Bishop Burbidge attended Catholic grade schools and graduated from Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield in 1975. He studied at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1984. In 1999, he was appointed Rector of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and ordained an auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia in 2002 serving in that role until 2006.

On June 8, 2006 Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Burbidge the fifth Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh; Bishop Burbidge was installed in Raleigh on August 4, 2006. On October 4, 2016, he was announced by Pope Francis as the fourth Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Arlington; he was installed on December 6, 2016 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More

“It will be a tremendous privilege to honor a native son of the region, a distinguished alumnus and former rector of Saint Charles at our annual Concursus ceremony,” said Reverend Keith J. Chylinski, the Seminary’s Rector.

“Bishop Burbidge’s professional accomplishments and courageous witness to the Faith will certainly serve as an inspiration to our graduates and to all who attend.”

Bishop Burbidge will join a prominent list of honorary degree recipients from the seminary, including Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop Borys Gudziak, Dr. Jacqueline C. Rivers, Professor Helen Alvaré, Professor Andreas Widmer, Justice Samuel Alito, Saint  Teresa of Calcutta, and former Pennsylvania Chief Justice Robert N. C. Nix.