Pope Francis has named Bishop Gregory L. Parkes, up until now bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, as bishop of St. Petersburg, Florida, and has accepted the resignation of bishop Robert N. Lynch from the pastoral governance.
Parkes was born in Mineola, New York, on April 2, 1964. He attended St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida from 1993-1996 and the Pontifical North American College in the Vatican City State from 1996-2000. He holds a Sacred Theology (S.T.B.) degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University (1998) and a Canon Law (J.C.L.) degree from the Pontifical Gregorian University (2000), as well as a bachelor’s degree in finance from Florida State University.
He was ordained a priest of the Orlando Diocese on June 26, 1999.
On March 20, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee. He was installed as the fifth bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee on June 5, 2012.
Bishop Robert N. Lynch, 75, was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Miami on May 13, 1978. He was appointed the fourth bishop of St. Petersburg on December 5, 1995 and was installed on January 26, 1996.
The Diocese of St. Petersburg comprises 3,177 square miles in the state of Florida. It has a total population of 3,009,840 people of whom 445,456, or 14%, are Catholic.
