MARQUETTE, MI-- The bishop of the Diocese of Marquette is heading west.
Bishop Alexander Sample has been appointed Archbishop of Portland, Oregon by Pope Benedict XVI. Sample will remain administrator of the Marquette Diocese until he’s installed in his new post April 2. At that time the Diocesan College of Consultors will select a new administrator until a new bishop or an apostolic administrator is named by the Pope.
Sample was ordained bishop at St. Peter Cathedral in 2006. At 45 years old, he was the youngest bishop in the United States at that time.
In a prepared statement Sample said, “Even as there is excitement and joy at taking up this new challenge that God has placed before me, I would be less than honest if I did not say that I will leave the Church in the U.P. with a certain heaviness of heart. I will profoundly miss the people, the clergy and religious of the diocese. I will miss my brother priests in a special way, since I was chosen from among them to be their bishop.”
