Pope’s choice for Bishop of Plymouth steps down after delay of installation Mass

The bishop named by the Pope as the next Bishop of Plymouth has declined the appointment three months after his installation was mysteriously delayed.

Just days before Auxiliary Bishop Philip Moger of Southwark was due to be installed at Plymouth Cathedral he announced that the ceremony would not go ahead as planned.

He said at the time that concerns of “a personal nature” had been raised and must be resolved before he could succeed Mark O’Toole, who left the diocese to serve as Archbishop of Cardiff and Menevia.

Today, however, Bishop Moger announced that he had decided to decline the appointment altogether.

He said: “At the beginning of November 2024, just before I was to begin my ministry in Plymouth, I let it be known that concerns of a personal nature had been raised, to which I had to attend immediately.

“This has taken longer than I anticipated. All things considered, I have come to the decision to present to the Holy Father a request to step down from my appointment as Bishop of the Diocese of Plymouth. The Holy Father has accepted my request.

“For the immediate future, I will be taking a sabbatical: a time of prayer and personal reflection, the next stage on the journey of my ministry.

“I realise, with regret, that this leaves a continuing vacancy in the Diocese of Plymouth. I assure the lay faithful, clergy and religious of the Diocese of my good wishes and prayers, and ask the same of them for me.”

Bishop Moger, formerly a priest of the Diocese of Leeds, was the second bishop-elect to be named for Plymouth in just a year.

Francis appointed him after Clifton priest Canon Christopher Whitehead, the Pope’s original choice in December 2023 was forced to step aside because of accusations which proved to be unfounded.

Canon Whitehead was a popular and highly-respected parish priest in Bath and had also worked as Clifton’s director of Adult Education, director of ongoing formation of priests, and director of formation for the permanent diaconate

Last February the bishops of England and Wales cancelled his ordination just weeks before it was due to take place.

Canon Whitehead was also suspended from active ministry while “a canonical process” ran its course.

But two months later he resumed parish ministry at the Church of St John the Evangelist in Bath.

(Photo © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk)

The post Pope’s choice for Bishop of Plymouth steps down after delay of installation Mass first appeared on Catholic Herald.

The post Pope’s choice for Bishop of Plymouth steps down after delay of installation Mass appeared first on Catholic Herald.