Michael Prior

For three years he was director of the Vincentian Formation followed by two years at Bishop Ullathorne Roman Catholic School, Coventry. In 1977, he went to St Mary's College, first as lecturer in theology, then as department head (1987-97), and, from earlier this year, as professor of Theology and Religious Studies.

In his book Zionism and the State of Israel: a moral inquiry, Prior developed a moral critique of Zionism, emphasizing its secular roots and the relatively recent character of support for Zionism by religious Jewry. Prior also claimed that the expulsion of the Palestinians, far from being a consequence of the Nazi Holocaust or of the fortunes of war in 1948, had been planned by the founding fathers of Zionism from the beginning. Prior believed that Zionism was morally flawed from 1948, when the first war was fought.

Michael Prior (March 15, 1942 – July 21, 2004) was a priest of the Vincentian Congregation, professor of biblical theology at Saint Mary's College, University of Surrey, and a liberation theologian. He was one of the more colourful and controversial figures in the Catholic Church in Great Britain, and an outspoken critic of Israel and of Zionism.

Prior was born in Cork in 1942. Prior joined the Congregation of the Mission on leaving school and took a degree in Physics at University College Dublin, he trained Vincentian Seminary in St Joseph's, Blackrock, completing his theological studies he was ordained in Castleknock College in 1969. After ordination he studied Semitic Languages, gaining his Licentiate in Sacred Scripture in Rome in 1972. He followed this with a PhD on the theology of St Paul from King's College London.