WASHINGTON — Pope Francis has named Auxiliary Bishop David P. Talley of Atlanta as coadjutor of the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana.
The appointment was announced in Washington Sept. 21 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Bishop Talley, a priest of the Atlanta Archdiocese, was named an auxiliary bishop of Atlanta in January 2013 and was ordained a bishop in April of that year.
Bishop Ronald P. Herzog is the bishop of Alexandria; he has headed the diocese since 2005. As coadjutor, Bishop Talley automatically becomes head of the diocese upon the death or retirement of its bishop.
“Pope Francis has given the people of the Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana a tremendous pastoral gift,” Atlanta Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory said in a statement. “Bishop Talley is a servant minister of our church, who is graced with extraordinary wisdom, patience, kindness, and dedication.
“He developed those gifts as priest and bishop here in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, where he always cared for our people as a true minister of mercy and kindness.”
Bishop Talley has served the archdiocese in a number of capacities including as director of vocations, tribunal judge, judicial vicar and chancellor, and has served on the archdiocese’s Hispanic ministry board and on its advisory board representing priests.
Born in Columbus, Georgia, Sept. 11, 1950, he pursued seminary studies at St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology in Indiana. He was ordained for the Atlanta Archdiocese in 1989.
His first assignment was as parochial vicar of St. Jude Parish in Sandy Springs, Georgia. He was there until 1993, when he began post-graduate studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he earned a doctorate in canon law in 1998. In 2001, St. John Paul II named him a monsignor.
He has served other parishes as administrator, pastor and parochial vicar. He last assignment before being named an auxiliary bishop was as pastor of St. Brigid Parish in Johns Creek, Georgia, from 2011 to 2013.
The Diocese of Alexandria comprises 11,108 square miles in central Louisiana. It has a population of 368,065 people of whom, 36,280, or 10 percent, are Catholic.
