SPRINGFIELD- Pope Francis today (6/19/2014) named Bishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, currently an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland as the Ninth Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts. He will succeed Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell who submitted his letter of resignation almost 18 months ago, as required by Church law, on his 75th birthday, December 23, 2012.
Bishop McDonnell was appointed March 4, 2004 as Bishop of Springfield and installed April 1, 2004. He came to Springfield from the Archdiocese of New York, NY. He has indicated that he will retire in western Massachusetts.
The acceptance of Bishop McDonnell’s resignation and the appointment of Bishop Rozanski were announced in Washington, DC by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the United States and simultaneously by the Vatican Press Office. An installation date has been set for Tuesday August 12 at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield.
Bishop Rozanski will be introduced this morning at a 10am press conference scheduled for the Bishop John Marshall Center. That event will be available via live streaming on the diocesan website http://www.diospringfield.org and the diocesan news website http://www.iobserve.org.
A longer story with a biography and pictures of Bishop Rozanski can be found at iobserve.org.