New Bishop for Portmouth Diocese

Mgr Egan at communion time during the opening Mass of Ss Peter and Paul Church in New Brighton.

(Photo - Philip Chidell)

Congratulations to Mgr Philip Egan, who has been appointed as the new Bishop of Portsmouth.  I last saw him at the opening of the new shrine at New Brighton on the Wirral, which Bishop Mark Davies has given over to the ICKSP and the Traditional Liturgy.  I can only think this is good news for the Church in England and Wales.

From the Pontifical Acts of 11th July:

Appointed Msgr. Philip Anthony Egan of the clergy of the diocese of Shrewsbury, as bishop of Portsmouth (area 6,339, population 2,524,000, Catholics 192,000, priests 189, permanent deacons 43, religious 363), England. The bishop-elect was born in Altrincham in the diocese of Salford in 1955 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1984. After graduate studies in theology at Boston College in the United States, he served as professor of fundamental theology and academic dean at St. Mary's College, Oscott in Birmingham, England. In 2008 he became pastor of Our Lady and St. Christopher in Stockport and, in 2010, vicar general of the diocese of Shrewsbury. He succeeds Bishop Crispian Hollis, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Portsmouth the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.