WASHINGTON (June 11, 1997) -- Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of Bishop Louis E. Gelineau of Providence. Most Reverend Robert E. Mulvee, Coadjutor Bishop of Providence since 1995, succeeds Bishop Gelineau.

The announcement was made by Msgr. Renato Volante, Charge d'Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature here.

Robert Edward Mulvee was born in Boston, February 15, 1930. He studied at St. Thomas Seminary, Bloomfield, Connecticut, University Seminary in Ottawa, and the American College, Louvain, where he was ordained on June 30, 1957. He earned a doctorate in Canon Law at the Lateran University in Rome.

After parish and teaching assignments, he joined the staff of the Manchester, New Hampshire, diocesan chancery in 1964. He was named Chancellor of Manchester in 1972 and was serving in that post when he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Manchester, February 22, 1977.

Bishop Mulvee was named Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware on February 19, 1985. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Providence on February 7, 1995.

Louis E. Gelineau was born in Burlington, Vermont on May 3, 1928. He studied at St. Paul's University and Seminary in Ottawa, and was ordained on June 5, 1954.

Appointed sixth Bishop of Providence on December 14, 1971, Bishop Gelineau was ordained to the episcopacy on January 26, 1972, during the centenary year of the Diocese of Providence.

The diocese, which comprises the State of Rhode Island, has a population of more than a million including some 645,000 Catholics.

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