De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Bishop Mark O'Toole, born 22 June 1963 and currently ninth of Plymouth diocese ( appointed 2013 ) will be the next Archbishop of Cardiff, he will also be bishop of Menevia, it has been revealed.  Former private secretary to St. Gallen Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor (2002-2008), then appointed rector at Allen Hall Seminary in September 2008, O'Toole has long been on a trajectory to high office. Archbishop-elect O’Toole will become the eighth archbishop of Cardiff in succession to Archbishop George Stack, who has been Archbishop of Cardiff since 2011. The installation will take place in Cardiff Cathedral on 20 June, the feast day of Welsh martyrs Saints Julius and Aaron. This follows a similar move in Ireland which was seen as a way of reducing the number of bishops . The Papal Nuncio in Ireland, Archbishop Jude Okolo explained: “this form of union of two dioceses under one Bishop is not an amalgamation and does not suppress either of the two dioceses. Both dioceses will c...

The Latin Mass Society advise: +++ THIS SUNDAY IN PLYMOUTH DEVON+++A MISSA CANTATA AND A BISHOP! 2nd Sunday in Advent 10th December, Bishop Mark O'Toole will be attending the 11.30am Old Rite Latin Mass at St. Edward the Confessor, Peverell, Plymouth. He will be sitting in choir and giving the sermon. The Mass will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Fr. Anthony Pillari’s ordination. This is a wonderful occasion for the parish and for the diocese to see the Bishop showing support for the Latin Mass. There will be a refreshments in the church hall afterward, and all welcome to attend. Do come along If you want to know more about the parish and the Latin Mass read more here Bishop Mark with myself in October “while the new Mass can be celebrated in a reverent way that directs us to the transcendent, “there is nothing in the rule governing the way the Novus Ordo is to be said that ensures the centrality of the celebration of the Paschal mystery.” In other words, ...

Photograph: Paul F. Abbott Last Monday evening I travelled to St. Patrick's Church in Soho Square London to attend the presentation given by Bishop Mark O'Toole, Bishop of Plymouth for The Guild of Our Lady & St. Joseph . The talk Bishop Mark gave was to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism and entitled “How to be a disciple making disciple - Prayer, Faith, Loving Service and the Sacramental life". I have bumped into Bishop Mark a couple of times since he was ordained Bishop. At Buckfast Abbey where the School of the Annunciation is based.  Indeed Bishop Mark drew attention to the blessing the school constitutes in his address: ...as the local bishop I want to say what a great blessing it is to our diocese. Theological reflection and expertise within the Catholic tradition, is a limited resource in the South West, and indeed more widely in the English speaking world. It is good for us to have the School among us. I first me...

Back in November 2013 it was announced that Mark O'Toole would be ordained bishop of Plymouth Diocese. This took place on January 2014 at Plymouth Cathedral . Since then, he has notably spoken out on assisted dying and vocation , but Bishop Mark has made evangelisation a priority in his own diocese since 2015. This Pastoral Letter from that year lays out his initial vision for discipleship, and is well worth a read. In the covering letter  to his most recent Pastoral Letter , Bishop Mark wrote:  .....it is most of all in the parish that we experience Jesus’ Risen life. The parish is the precious place of God’s grace, the place where we discover our vocation. It is a place in which every baptised Catholic is called to deepen their own love and friendship of Jesus Christ and, at the same time to “make disciples”. It is not a matter of either having a deep relationship with Jesus or going out to help others encounter Him. It is both. Our vocation as discipl...

If, like me, you found yourself roused by the Creed last Sunday following the soporific platitudes of the Pastoral Letter from Archbishops Smith & Nichols, and wondered at the lack of any Sacramental dimension to their predictable and agenda ridden diatribe, you might be interested in watching this video from Bishop Mark O'Toole in Plymouth: Bishop's message for Home Mission Sunday 2015 from Catholic Church (England/Wales) on Vimeo . Reassuringly Catholic, isn't it? As for the other thing, it was so blatantly sycophantic it was frightening! One of the most disappointing things about the CBEW, apart from their lack of evangelising and catechesis, is the way they seem to swim with political trends. Anyone who watches knows this and ++Vincent, especially, is so into this "mercy" without consequences narrative now, I'd love to see how he back-peddles out of any contrary message post synod. It's all terribly predictable if you know where he wa...

Bishop O'Toole with Dr. Petroc Willey of The School The Rt Rev. Mark O’Toole, Bishop of Plymouth, has officially issued a canonical Decree, also known as a ‘ recognitio ’, establishing the School of the Annunciation as a Catholic Institute of Higher Education. The School’s campus at Buckfast Abbey is located within the Diocese of Plymouth. Bishop O’Toole has taken a keen interest in the School since its beginning in early 2014, becoming one of the School’s two patrons, alongside Cardinal Pell, and appointing a diocesan priest, Fr Guy de Gaynesford, as the School’s first rector. This Decree, establishing the School as a Catholic Institute of Higher Education, is in accordance with article 3§1 of Ex Corde Ecclesiae , the Apostolic Constitution of Pope St John Paul II concerning Catholic Universities and Institutions of Higher Learning in the Church. In doing so Bishop O’Toole also gave his consent to the use of the term “Catholic” in the titles of the School in an official ca...

Bishop Mark O'Toole with Abbot David Charlesworth & Cardinal Pell In huge contrast to yesterday's worrying and nasty blog subject, today I am pleased to bring you something very encouraging! Bishop Mark O'Toole, recently Ordained to Plymouth Diocese, continues to delight and impress with his Catholicity (it seems incredible that I even have to say that of a Catholic bishop really doesn't it?) When I received the LMS Magazine at the weekend, I was delighted to read an interview with Bishop Mark which is available here . In it he articulates a clear plan of action which seems to follow on naturally from his recent excellent Pastoral Letter on Vocation . In that letter, he stated his belief that the challenge faced by the Church today is not a lack of vocations, but rather a lack of responses. The solution to this problem seems obvious to me, and I'm no bishop! Mark O'Toole is, and thankfully he seems to see it clearly. Young men will not answer the ca...

That Vocations to the Priesthood are in crisis is an internationally accepted reality. I don't think it is rocket science to work out why either. To be a Catholic today is to be attacked by Catholics. I think Pope Benedict XVI went a long way to sorting this out, by making the essentials of the faith clear and that led many who felt disenfranchised in a community which no longer practised what it preached to feel part of the Church once more. However I do think the fundamental malaise remains and that is that many don't like other Catholics who take their faith seriously, some priests as well as lay people! As Father Alexander Lucie-Smith points out in The Catholic Herald today: "People who oppose Catholic teaching from within the Catholic Church, particularly from within the institutional Church, always feel a huge amount of pain when challenged, and are never reticent about sharing it. They usually ignore, however, the pain they cause to ordinary believing ...

I was so glad to hear from a member of his diocese, that the recently ordained ninth Bishop of Plymouth, The Rt. Rev Mark O'Toole has also spoken out on the Assisted Dying Bill which is due to be debated in the House of Lords on Friday, 18 July. The Bishop, ordained on 28th January this year at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Boniface, was formerly rector of Allen Hall seminary in West London. I have to say, I keep hearing good things about the work he is doing in Plymouth--Deo gratias! In a pastoral letter issued last weekend, Bishop O'Toole warned that the Bill raises "serious questions" about what sort of society we want to be: "Our faith teaches us that all human life is sacred. Respecting life means that every person must be valued for as long as they live. Whilst we believe every person should be given appropriate treatment in their suffering we do not always use extraordinary means to extend life at all costs. "At the same ...

The Plymouth Herald reports that Plymouth Cathedral was packed yesterday to witness the ordination of Mark O'Toole as ninth Bishop of Plymouth. Bishop Mark is now the leader of the 163-year-old Catholic Diocese of Plymouth. Bishops from across the 22 Catholic diocese of England and Wales were in attendance to take part in the historic episcopal ordination, only the third to take place in Plymouth in 59 years. Bishop Mark is also enjoys the distinction of being the first episcopal appointment in England and Wales by Pope Francis. Mark O'Toole's elevation to a successor of the Apostles was announced at about 11am on the 9th November ( see my post at the time ). Bishop Mark is 50 and was born in London. He was formerly rector of Allen Hall seminary in West London and also private secretary to Cardinal Emeritus Cormac Murphy O'Connor. Brief Bio: 22 June 1963 Born in London, the youngest son of Marcus and Maura O’Toole who originally came from th...

The big news today is that as of about 11am it was announced that the Pope has appointed Mgr Mark O’Toole as new Bishop of Plymouth. Bishop elect Mark (not a bad Christian name if you ask me) was  personal secretary to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and then, from 2008, Rector of Allen Hall Seminary. Mgr O’Toole’s episcopal ordination will take place at 2pm on Tuesday 28 January 2014 at the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface in Plymouth. He will succeed Bishop Christopher Budd, who has been Bishop of Plymouth since 1986. Mgr. Mark O’Toole—Brief Bio: 22 June 1963 Born in London, the youngest son of Marcus and Maura O’Toole who originally came from the Irish-speaking community of Connemara, Galway, Ireland. Attended St Ignatius Primary School, Stamford Hill and St Thomas More Secondary school in Wood Green. Left school with four ‘A’ levels in 1981. 1984 Graduated with a B.Sc. in Geography from the University of Leicester 1984-89 Studied for the...