| Pope Benedict’s First Bishop is an Irishman
By Peter Foley
Third-generation Irishman the Right Reverend Peter Doyle has become the
first bishop to be appointed by Pope Benedict XVI.
He was ordained installed as the 12th Roman Catholic Bishop of Northampton.
The 61-year-old was ordained by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor during
a concelebrated Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate and St. Thomas
of Canterbury.
And amongst the ranks of his brother bishops at the ceremony was his
old friend the Right Reverend Declan Lang — the second-generation Irishman
who is Bishop of Clifton.
The two men met when they were both priests in the Portsmouth Diocese
and a shared love of golf is amongst their common interests.
Bishop Peter was born at Wilpshire near Blackburn in Lancashire and can
trace his roots back to Co. Carlow.
His father John was a school teacher and the family moved to Essex before
eventually settling in Hampshire after Mr Doyle had been appointed head
at All Hallows School in Farnham.
Bishop Peter was educated by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius Prep School,
Buckhurst Hill and at St. Ignatius College in Stamford Hill.
A military career could have beckoned — he had been offered a scholarship
to Sandhurst — but another vocation had a stronger calling on the teenager.
He was ordained a priest by Bishop Derek Worlock — whose secretary at
the time was future Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor — in St. John’s Cathedral
in Portsmouth in June 1968.
After serving as a curate in Copnor and Windsor he became a Parish Priest
in Maidenhead and Winchester — the last appointment combined with the role
of Vicar General for the Portsmouth Diocese.
The new spiritual leader of the Northampton Diocese said he was humbled,
stunned, surprised and excited when appointed to his new role.
Bishop Peter said: “I want to take every opportunity to become part of
the family of the Diocese — to play my full part as its bishop and continue
to develop good relations with other Christians along with people of other
faiths and of none.”
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