The bishop-elect succeeds Bishop Ambrose Griffiths, 75, who is retiring after 12 years, the Vatican press office announced today.
Kevin Dunn was born in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, on July 9, 1950. He studied for the priesthood at Oscott College, Birmingham, and was ordained on Jan. 17, 1976.
In 1991 he earned a doctorate in canon law from the University of St Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum, in Rome.
Among other duties, he has been episcopal vicar for the deaneries of Wolverhampton, Walsall, the Black Country, and Worcestershire and a member of the Archbishop’s Council, in the Archdiocese of Birmingham.
The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle has a Catholic population of 223,060 people, about 10% of the total population of the area.
Canon Dunn will be ordained a bishop in the Cathedral Church of St. Mary here on May 25.
