VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI has made his first changes in the hierarchy of the Church in the United States, announced the Vatican press office.
In a statement released today, the Vatican reported that the Holy Father accepted the resignation of Bishop David Foley of Birmingham, Alabama.
The bishop had submitted his resignation in February upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75. He was bishop of Birmingham for 11 years.
The Pope appointed Monsignor Denis Madden, associate secretary-general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, as Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore.
Monsignor Madden was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in 1940, and was ordained a Benedictine priest in 1967.
Following assignments with the Benedictines, Monsignor Madden was assigned to Baltimore in 1973 where he undertook a residency program in psychology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
After completing a doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of Notre Dame, Monsignor Madden decided to leave the Benedictine order. He was incardinated as a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1976.
His subsequent positions included professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland, director of the Consultation Center for Clergy and Religious of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and director of the Violence Management Training Program of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of the State of Maryland. During this time he also assisted in St. Martin and St. Gregory the Great parishes, both in Baltimore.
In 1988 Monsignor Madden was appointed director of the Ecumenical Institute in Tantum, Jerusalem, and in 1994 became director of the Jerusalem office of the Pontifical Mission for Palestine, which is under the Catholic Near East Welfare Association. In 1995 he was named associate secretary-general of the organization.
Bishop David Foley was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, Feb. 3, 1930. He attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., on May 26, 1956. He was named auxiliary bishop of Richmond in 1986, and appointed bishop of Birmingham in 1994.
