The Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Bishop Denis J. Madden from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of Baltimore (area 12,430, population 3,216,626, Catholics 509,491, priests 522, permanent deacons 173, religious 935), United States of America, and has appointed Msgr. Adam J. Parker and Msgr. Mark E. Brennan as auxiliaries of the same archdiocese.

Bishop-elect Adam John Parker was born in 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 2000. He holds a licentiate in communication from the University of Maryland in College Park and in sacramental theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral roles, including vicar and parish administrator, parish priest, vice-chancellor and episcopal secretary, special secretary to Cardinal O’Brien in Rome, and member of the council of archdiocesan Caritas. In 2011 he was appointed as chaplain of His Holiness and is currently vicar general and moderator of the Curia.

Bishop-elect Mark Edward Brennan was born in 1947 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, and was ordained a priest in 1970. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island in 1969 and attended the Christ the King Seminary in Albany, New York and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a bachelor’s degree and Master of Arts in theology. He subsequently dedicated himself to Hispanic immersion studies in the Dominican Republic. After ordination he served in a number of pastoral roles, including parish vicar, pastoral ministry in the Hispanic community of the St. Bartholomew parish in Bethesda, director of priestly vocations and priestly programmes in the archdiocese of Washington, parish administrator, and parish priest. He has also served as member of the presbyteral council and the council of consulters, vicar forane, and counsel at the metropolitan tribunal of the archdiocese of Washington. In 2005 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. He is currently pastor of the St. Martin of Tours parish in Gaithersburg.