BY Ian Dunn | June 27 | 
2 COMMENTS 
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Mgr Peter Brignall is Wales’ newest bishop
Bishop-elect of Wrexham delighted he will be installed a month before the Year of Faith begins
Pope Benedict XVI today appointed Mgr Peter Brignall as Bishop of Wrexham in Wales.
The Episcopal Ordination of Bishop-elect Monsignor Brignall (above) will take place on Wednesday, September 12 at St Mary’s Cathedral, Wrexham. He will take over from Bishop Edwin Regan who is retiring.
“I am delighted for Bishop Edwin that he is now able to take his well deserved retirement and after having overcome the initial astonishment of the Holy Father’s expression of confidence in me, am humbled and honoured to accept this appointment and to be able again to commit my life to the service of the Catholic Church in North Wales, a Church that now 35 years ago I chose and offered to work in and for on leaving London,” Mgr Brignall said. “Earlier this year we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of the Diocese of Wrexham and we are still very young in the 3rd millennium, so any plans I might have for the future are first and foremost to build on the foundations laid by the first two Bishops of Wrexham, Bishop James Hannigan and Bishop Edwin Regan.”
Bishop-elect Brignall, 58, was ordained priest for Menevia Diocese by Bishop Langton Fox in 1978, and has been Cathedral dean of St Mary’s, Wrexham, since 1999 and vicar general of the diocese since 2003.
The new bishop said he felt the timing of his appointment was particularly apposite.
“Just a month after my ordination as bishop the Church begins the Year of Faith, a year in which Pope Benedict XVI invites Catholics to rediscover the gift of faith and so seek new ways of proclaiming it,” he said. I could do no better than taking that as the starting point of my ministry, indeed as the whole purpose of my ministry in Wales for years to come”.
Bishop Regan said that he welcomed the appointment of Bishop-Elect Brignall with great joy.
“He has dedicated his life as a priest to the service of the Gospel in Wales,” he said. “He has been a loyal and wise colleague as Vicar General, with a deep love for the People of the Diocese and his fellow clergy. Through his long experience of pastoral work in Wales, Bishop-elect Brignall understands the importance of the Welsh language and culture in modern Wales. He will continue to lead the Diocese in the spirit of the 2nd Vatican Council, especially with the advent of the Year of Faith.”
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I met Mgr Peter Brignall 21 years ago. He was the chaplain for St Davids hospital Bangor. I had just had a baby boy by C section. (My son Lee David, was nearly 3 months premature) Fr Peter, as he was then was such a comfort, I still carry the Holy Picture he gave me (a little worse for wear)Well you have both come a long way Mgr. You a Bishop and that little scrap that you baptised in hospital is 6 ft tall and has just graduated from University. I wish you every happiness. God bless you.
Arlene Pritchard
It was with great delight that I learned the news of Mgr. Peter Brignall’s well deserved appointment. I also remember him as Parish Priest at Bangor. He is a very kind and compassionate man. We can only hope that as we enter the Year of Faith this diocese will grow. We long to veer away from Bishop Regan’s mindset of promoting the Welsh Language, before the Catholic Faith. This has saddened many, English and Welsh alike. We look forward to a new chapter in a diocese that has certainly seen better days.