Pope Francis appoints new English bishop

Pope Francis has appointed Mgr Mark O’Toole as the next Bishop of Plymouth.

He will succeed Bishop Christopher Budd, who has served the diocese in the south of England since 1986.

The bishop-elect served as personal secretary to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and then, from 2008, as rector of Allen Hall, the seminary of the Archdiocese of Westminster.

Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Plymouth in 1850. The new bishop will be the ninth in the diocese’s history.

The diocese covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon, and Dorset. The episcopal see is the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface in Plymouth.

Bishop Budd reached the retirement age of 75 on May 27 2012. In an interview with the Tablet this week he said he wondered why it was taking so long to appoint his successor.

“I don’t think things are happening very quickly, he said. “People are keen to know who is their new bishop.”

Today marks the second English episcopal appointment by Pope Francis. The first was Bishop Alan Hopes of East Anglia in June.