Church Roman Catholic Church Denomination Roman Catholic Ordination 16 June 1990 Appointed 3 June 2016 | Installed August 24, 2016 Motto INVENIMUS MESSIAM Consecration 24 August 2016 | |
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Other posts Titular Bishop of Gigthi Born June 25, 1964 (age 52)
Toronto, Ontario ( 1964-06-25 ) Archdiocese Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Books The Mobility of Secular Cleries and Incardination: Canon 268-1 Reference styles Excellency, The Most Reverend | ||
Mark William O'Connell (born June 25, 1964) is an American Roman Catholic bishop.
As of 2016, he is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston for the North region of the Archdiocese.
Life and career
Mark O'Connell was born in Toronto, Ontario on June 25, 1964 to Thomas F. and Margaret M. (Delaney) O'Connell, both American citizens. His father Thomas was a University Librarian at York University and later at Boston College. The family returned to Massachusetts when Mark O'Connell was aged 12. He graduated from Dover-Sherborn High School in 1982.
O'Connell earned the B.A. degree in English and philosophy at Boston College in 1986 and studied for the priesthood at Saint John's Seminary in Boston. He was ordained as a priest on June 16, 1990. He served in parishes in Woburn and Danvers and as a college chaplain at Salem State College. He undertook studies in canon law starting in 1997 at the Pontifical Athenaeum of the Holy Cross in Rome, completing the licentiate degree in 1999 and the doctorate in 2002. He joined the canonical affairs staff of the Archdiocese in 2001 and was appointed Judicial Vicar in 2007.
From 2009 to 2012, he served as a senior consultor to the Canon Law Society of America. He has also served on the faculty of Saint John's Seminary and Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary. From 2011 to 2014, he was one of several regular co-hosts on the daily radio program The Good Catholic Life, broadcast on the Catholic radio station WQOM 1060AM in Boston.
On June 3, 2016, Pope Francis appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Titular Bishop of Gigthi in Tripolitana. He was consecrated on August 24, 2016 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston by Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston. The ordination Mass was broadcast by CatholicTV, EWTN, and Salt and Light television networks.