Pope Leo XIV has appointed Bishop Mark O’Connell the 11th Bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York. He will succeed Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, 77, whose resignation due to age was accepted Oct. 20 by the Holy Father. Bishop O’Connell is expected to be installed on Dec. 5, 2025.

Bishop Scharfenberger will host a press conference at 1 p.m. at the Albany diocese’s Pastoral Center to introduce Bishop O’Connell. The press conference will be live-streamed at www.facebook.com/DioceseOfAlbany.

According to the Diocese of Albany website, the diocese has 126 parishes, four apostolates, and 157 worship sites serving a Catholic population of approximately 325,000. It covers a 14-county area of about 10,400 square miles, roughly the size of the entire state of Massachusetts.

In a statement released following the announcement, Archbishop Richard Henning said, “I have had the blessing over the last year to work with Bishop Mark O’Connell. He is a remarkably capable man and very humble. He loves people and he loves the priests of our archdiocese. He has served Boston joyfully and effectively for decades. While we are sorry to lose him here in Boston we rejoice with the clergy, religious, and lay faithful of the Diocese of Albany. We are sending you our best and wishing you and your new bishop every blessing!”

Bishop O’Connell was ordained to the priesthood in 1990 and served for seven years in parishes in Woburn and Danvers. In 1997, he went to Rome to study Canon Law and received his doctorate in Canon Law (JCD) in 2002 from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

From 2001 to 2007, he served as Assistant to the Moderator of the Curia for Canonical Affairs. Between 2007 and 2016 he served as Judicial Vicar and as a member of the faculty at both St. John’s Seminary and Pope St. John XXIII National Seminary.

After his ordination to the episcopacy in 2016, he served as pastor of St. Theresa Parish in North Reading and as the Regional Bishop of the North Region of the archdiocese. He was appointed Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia of the Archdiocese in 2023 by Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley.

In an Oct. 20 statement, Cardinal O’Malley said, “On learning that our Holy Father Pope Leo XIV has named the Most Rev. Mark O’Connell the 11th Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, I join Archbishop Henning, the clergy, religious and laity of the Archdiocese of Boston in congratulating Bishop Mark on this most deserved leadership appointment.”

“During my years as Archbishop of Boston, Bishop Mark provided invaluable service as a pastor and an Auxiliary Bishop beloved by the people he served. During his service as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, Bishop Mark exercised leadership for the archdiocese with a pastoral heart and faithfulness to Christ. Though the Archdiocese of Boston will greatly miss Bishop Mark, we give thanks to God for his being elevated to new heights in the life of the Church. Our prayers are with him and the Diocese of Albany now and in the years ahead,” the cardinal said.