USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop John McCarthy; Bishop Gregory Aymond Succeeds in Austin

Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop John McCarthy; Bishop Gregory Aymond Succeeds in Austin

WASHINGTON (January 2, 2001) -- Pope John Paul II accepted the resignation of Most Reverend John E. McCarthy, Bishop of Austin, Texas since 1985. Most Reverend Gregory M. Aymond, who was named Coadjutor Bishop of Austin last June, will now become Ordinary of the diocese.

Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, made the announcement.

Gregory Michael Aymond was born in New Orleans on November 12, 1949.

He attended elementary and secondary schools in his home city and entered St. Joseph Minor Seminary in 1971. He earned a master of divinity degree at Notre Dame Major Seminary in 1975. Bishop Aymond was ordained to the priesthood on May 10, 1975.

He served on the faculty of St. John Vianney Preparatory Seminary from 1973 to 1981. Bishop Aymond was on the faculty of Notre Dame Seminary and Director of Pastoral Field Education there from 1981 to 1986, when he was named Rector-President. He was also archdiocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and of the Holy Childhood Association.

Bishop Aymond was named Titular Bishop of Acolla and Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, November 19, 1996. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Austin, June 1, 2000.

John E. McCarthy was born in Houston, June 21, 1930. He studied at the University of St. Thomas and St. Mary's Seminary in Houston and was ordained a priest of the diocese of Galveston (now Galveston-Houston) on May 26, 1956.

Named Titular Bishop of Pedena and Auxiliary Bishop of Galveston-Houston on January 15, 1979, he was appointed Bishop of Austin on December 19, 1985.

The diocese of Austin, erected in 1948, comprises 19,511 square miles in the State of Texas. It has a Catholic population of 350,000 in a total population of slightly more than two million.