Pope Francis has named Father Brendan Cahill, 51, a priest of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, as bishop of Victoria, Texas, and accepted the resignation of Bishop David E. Fellhauer, 75, from pastoral governance of that diocese.
Brendan Cahill was born November 28, 1963, in Coral Gables, Florida. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master of divinity from the University of St. Thomas in Houston in 1985 and 1990, respectively.
Following ordination, he served as parochial vicar of St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Houston (1990-1992) and Christ the Good Shepherd in Spring, Texas (1992-1998). He earned a master’s degree in Black Catholic Studies from Xavier University, New Orleans, in 1993, and a doctor of sacred theology from the Gregorian University, Rome, in 1998. He served on the formation faculty (1998-2001) and later as rector (2001-2010) of St. Mary Seminary in Houston. Since 2010, he has served as director of the Secretariat for Clergy Formation and Chaplaincy Services of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston.
Bishop-elect Cahill speaks English, Spanish and Italian, with a working knowledge of French and German.
David E. Fellhauer was born August 19, 1939, in Kansas City, Missouri, and ordained a priest of the then-Diocese of Dallas-Fort Worth on May 29, 1965. He was appointed bishop of Victoria on April 7, 1990, and ordained a bishop on May 28 of that year.
The Diocese of Victoria comprises 9,609 square miles in the State of Texas and has a total population of 288,101 people, of which 103,428, or 36%, are Catholic.
