Catholic News

Bishop Mark O'Connell. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Boston

Vatican City, Oct 20, 2025 / 09:44 am (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV on Monday named Bishop Mark O'Connell, an auxiliary bishop of Boston, the next bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York.

O'Connell, a canon lawyer, succeeds the 77-year-old Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger, who has been bishop of Albany since 2014 and whose resignation was accepted by Pope Leo on Oct. 20.

The 61-year-old O'Connell has served the Archdiocese of Boston as an auxiliary bishop since 2016. He has also been vicar general and moderator of the curia since December 2022. 

The Diocese of Albany serves approximately 300,000 Catholics in the capital city of New York state and the surrounding area.

Scharfenberger announced earlier this year that the diocese will undergo a planning initiative in response to a "financial and maintenance crisis" that could result in the closure of up to one-third of its 126 parishes.

O'Connell was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on June 25, 1964, to American parents. His family moved back to the United States when he was 12. He earned a bachelor's degree in English and philosophy from Boston College before studying for the priesthood.

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1990. In 2002, he was awarded a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. Upon returning to Boston, he became part of the canonical affairs staff of the archdiocese. From 2007 to 2018 he was judicial vicar.

He also served as a senior consulter to the Canon Law Society of America from 2009 to 2012 and was part of the faculty of St. John's Seminary and the Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary in Weston, Massachusetts. 

O'Connell also has experience in radio. As a priest, he was the co-host of a daily radio program, "The Good Catholic Life," broadcast in Boston from 2011 to 2014.

In 2021, O'Connell voted against a motion of the U.S. bishops' conference to begin drafting a teaching document on the Eucharist.

He revealed in a July 25, 2025, statement that he believed the Eucharistic document would lead to greater polarization. O'Connell published his statement in the bulletin of St. Theresa Parish in North Reading, Massachusetts, as a response to a parishioner's question about denying Communion to pro-abortion politicians. 

In written responses to CNA's questions after the publication of his letter, O'Connell said he saw the discussion of denial of Communion to certain public figures as focusing too heavily on abortion, to the detriment of other issues.

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