Bishop Roche takes over in Leeds

BY FREDDY GRAY
ANEW BISHOP has taken charge of the diocese in which he was born.
Bishop Arthur Roche, the Yorkshire-born coadjutor Bishop of Leeds, has replaced Bishop David Konstant of Leeds as leader of the diocese.
Bishop Konstant, 73, is very ill in hospital. He received permission to retire from the Pope after Christmas last year. Bishop Roche has been his coadjutator for the last 18 months. Acoadjutator bishop is the natural successor to the principal bishop of a diocese.
There will be no special ceremony to mark the succession of Bishop Roche because, as a coadjutator bishop, he has already received and presented his Papal Mandate to the diocese. But Bishop Roche will celebrate a Mass of dedication on May 10 in Leeds Cathedral, to publicly mark the event.
Bishop Konstant was born in Blackheath, South London, and studied for the priesthood at Allen Hall, Ware. He was ordained by Cardinal Griffin on 12 June 1954 and served initially in the Archdiocese of Westminster. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop in Westminster by Pope Paul VI in 1977, and was also given the title of Area Bishop in Central London. During this time he was made a Freeman of the City of London. In 1985, he was installed as the Bishop of Leeds.
“Here and now I would simply like to express my gratitude to God and say what a joy it has been to be your bishop,” he wrote in a letter to the priests and deacons of the Diocese of Leeds. “You now have a bishop from among your own ranks. As from today, his name should be placed in the Eucharistic Prayer.” Bishop Roche, 54, is the ninth Bishop of Leeds since the diocese was formed in 1878, when the Diocese of Beverley was divided into the Dioceses of Leeds and Middlesbrough. He was born in Batley, but he studied for the priesthood at the English College in Valladolid, North West Spain, and in 1975 he was ordained priest. He has excelled in several clerical posts around the Leeds diocese. He served as coordinator for the papal visit to York in 1982.
“I feel genuinely very honoured to have been appointed by the Holy Father as the Bishop of Leeds,” said Bishop Roche in his new capacity. “This is my home, the place where I was nurtured as a layman and a priest.” Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, paid tribute to the outgoing Bishop Konstant. “I thank David on behalf of all the bishops for his outstanding service, not only to the Diocese of Leeds, but to the Catholic Church as a whole, in England and Wales and further afield. I wish him a long and peaceful retirement.” Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor also welcomed Bishop Roche as the new head of the Leeds diocese. He said: “The Leeds diocese is fortunate to have such an experienced priest and dedicated bishop as their new ordinary. He has my good wishes for a fruitful ministry in the years ahead.”