Pope nominates Bishop Coyne to diocese of Burlington, USA

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis has nominated Auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis Christopher James Coyne, as the new Bishop of Burlington, in the U.S. state of Vermont.  Bishop Coyne, from Woburn, Massachusetts, was born on June 17, 1958.  He earned a BA in Business Administration from the University of Lowell (now UMass-Lowell) in 1980.  He entered St. John Seminary in Brighton MA in the fall of 1981 and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Boston on June 7, 1986.

Bishop Coyne’s first assignment was to St. Mary of the Hills Parish in Milton MA until he was sent away for further studies in May of 1989.  After studying at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute at St. Anselmo in Rome, Italy, he obtained a License in Sacred Liturgy in 1992 and a Doctorate in 1994.   Returning to the United States, Bishop Coyne was appointed in 1994 to the faculty of St. John Seminary in Brighton MA as the professor of sacred liturgy and homiletics. 

In 2001, he was appointed Director of the Office for Worship for the Archdiocese of Boston while remaining on the faculty of St. John's Seminary.  When the clergy abuse crisis broke in January 2002, Bishop Coyne was asked to take on the role of media spokesperson for the archdiocese and was subsequently named Cabinet Secretary for Communications in May of that year.  He served as cabinet secretary and media spokesperson until May of 2005.

He was named auxiliary bishop of Indianapolis on January 14, 2011 and was ordained a bishop on March 2, 2011.  He was appointed on September 21, 2011 by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI as the Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, a position he served until Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin was installed on December 3, 2014. He currently serves on the USCCB Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis and the Committee representative to the Subcommittee on Certification for Ecclesial Ministry and Service.