USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Mulvee, Names Bishop Tobin as Bishop of Providence

Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Mulvee, Names Bishop Tobin as Bishop of Providence

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2005)—Pope John Paul II has accepted the resignation of Bishop Robert E. Mulvee as Bishop of Providence and named Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Youngstown as his successor.

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

Thomas J. Tobin was born April 1, 1948, in Pittsburgh. He studied at Gannon College, Erie, and at St. Francis College, Loretto, PA, from which he graduated in 1969.

He earned the S.T.B. degree from the Gregorian University, Rome, and also attended the Liturgical Institute St. Anselmo there.

Ordained July 21, 1973, he held pastoral and administrative posts in the Pittsburgh diocese, including spiritual director and Associate General Secretary.

Named Vicar General of Pittsburgh in 1990, he was appointed Titular Bishop of Novica and Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh on November 3, 1992. He was appointed Bishop of Youngstown December 5, 1995.

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

Bishop Mulvee was named Auxiliary Bishop of Manchester in 1977, Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware in 1985, and Coadjutor Bishop of Providence in 1995. He became Bishop of Providence on June 11, 1997.

Bishop Mulvee will be Apostolic Administrator of Providence until Bishop Tobin takes possession of the See.

Established in 1872, the Diocese of Providence comprises the State of Rhode Island. It has a Catholic population of approximately 679,275 in a total population of 1,069,725.