Bishop Robert Byrne has been appointed as the new Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle, succeeding Seamus Cunningham.
Bishop Byrne, formerly Provost of the Oxford Oratory, became the first Oratorian bishop in England for 140 years when he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham in 2014. He is regarded as friendly towards the Traditional Latin Mass, introducing a weekly Old Rite Mass during his time in Oxford.
He was born in Manchester in 1956 and attended St Bede’s School, King’s College London and the Pontifical College of St Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome.
