About

Canon Marcus Holden was appointed Rector of the Pontifical Beda College in 2025, bringing extensive pastoral and theological experience to the leadership of the College. He served for twenty years several parishes in the Archdiocese of Southwark and was most recently Dean of Lambeth and Episcopal Vicar for Evangelisation and Catechesis.
His pastoral ministry and academic background shape his leadership of formation, emphasising priesthood rooted in pastoral reality, theological depth, and fidelity to the Church.

Fr Steven Billington is a priest of the Diocese of Leeds and serves as Spiritual Director of the Pontifical Beda College. He has many years of pastoral ministry, including parish leadership and seminary teaching at Ushaw College. With extensive experience in spiritual accompaniment and clergy support, he guides seminarians in prayer, discernment, and sacramental life as they prepare for priestly ministry.

Dr B. Christina Pal, B.S., S.T.B., M.A., S.T.L., S.T.D., is Academic Director of the Beda. She has extensive experience teaching seminarians and clergy in the United Kingdom and Rome. A specialist in Systematic and Biblical Theology, she brings together Scripture and Dogma within the Church’s tradition, forming priests capable of clear theological judgement and faithful proclamation.

Fr Andrew Unsworth is a priest of the Archdiocese of Liverpool and serves as Formator and Professor at the Beda. He has ministered in parish life and previously served as Director of Ongoing Formation for Priests in his archdiocese. He holds degrees from Manchester and Durham, a PhD in Theology from the University of London, and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology (DST) awarded by the Dicastery for Culture and Education. He brings extensive teaching experience and accompanies seminarians across the four pillars of priestly formation.

Fr Barry Braum is a priest of the Diocese of Fréjus–Toulon in France and serves as Formator and Professor at the Pontifical Beda College. He holds an STL in Dogmatic Theology from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas in Rome and was appointed a Missionary of Mercy under Pope Francis, a ministry he continues to exercise. His pastoral experience includes parish ministry in the United States, retreat leadership at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in New York, and five years of chaplaincy at the Tyburn Convent in London. He accompanies seminarians across the human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral dimensions of priestly formation.