Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Stephen Wright to be the next Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle.
Bishop Wright, 52, who has until now served as an auxiliary bishop of Birmingham, worked as a lawyer before his ordination and is Chairman of CAFOD’s trustees.
He succeeds Bishop Robert Byrne, who resigned in December 2022 after just three years and almost a decade before his retirement age, saying that the demands of role had become “too great a burden”.
Following his resignation, an allegation of abuse made against him by a priest of another diocese was referred to the police, leading the Vatican to launch an abuse enquiry into the diocese, which found that Byrne had committed a “succession of errors of judgement”.
An independent safeguarding report published on Monday was heavily critical of the “poor leadership demonstrated by the diocesan bishop”, which it said had “served to undermine the work of both trustees and safeguarding professionals to the degree that people were put at potential risk”.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has hailed the appointment of Bishop Wright as “timely and fitting”, saying that it brings “a sharp awareness and knowledge of the legal frameworks, both canonical and civil, within which a Diocesan Church carries out its mission.”