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Pope Francis appoints Bishop Holley to lead Diocese of Memphis
By Mark Zimmermann
Pope Francis has appointed Washington Auxiliary Bishop Martin D. Holley to become the new bishop of Memphis, Tennessee, and the pope has accepted the resignation of Memphis Bishop J. Terry Steib, 76, from pastoral governance of the diocese. The Vatican announced the appointment on Aug. 23. “I am deeply humbled in my appointment as the fifth bishop of Memphis by His Holiness, Pope Frances and I thank him for expressing his confidence in me through this new assignment at this time in my life,” Bishop Holley said after his appointment was announced. He will be installed as the bishop of Memphis at the Cook Convention Center on Oct. 19 at 2 p.m. Bishop Holley, a 61-year-old native of Florida, has served as an auxiliary bishop of Washington since 2004. In a statement, Cardinal Donald Wuerl praised the appointment, calling it a blessing for the Catholic Church in Memphis and “a joy for all of us in Washington.” “Bishop Holley has demonstrated both pastoral sensitivity and administrative ability that should serve him well as he now undertakes his new ministry in western Tennessee,” the cardinal said. “We rejoice that the Church in Memphis is receiving such a talented and caring pastor of souls." In a statement, Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, archbishop emeritus of Washington, said, “The appointment of Bishop Martin Holley as Bishop of Memphis will bring an energetic and very pastoral leader to that charming southern diocese.... For the last 12 years, Bishop Holley has brought to the church of Washington a joyful, pastoral presence. Admired by priests and people alike for his kindness and pastoral zeal, he will bring these gifts to the Mississippi.” As a Vicar General for the Archdiocese of Washington, Bishop Holley was a member of the archdiocesan College of Consultors, Presbyteral Council, Seminarian Review board, Administrative Board, and was chairman of the College of Deans which oversees the 14 deaneries in the archdiocese. As the archdiocese’s former moderator of ethnic ministries, Bishop Holley helped address the needs of ethnic and language communities within the archdiocese. In an interview last year with the Catholic Standard newspaper of the archdiocese, Bishop Holley spoke of the blessings of that work, saying, “You get a glimpse of the face of God, the beauty of God, a glimpse of what it must be like to be in heaven.” Bishop Holley joined pilgrims from the Archdiocese of Washington at World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany in 2005, in Madrid, Spain in 2011, and this summer in Kraków, Poland. In an interview before joining pilgrims from the archdiocese at World Youth Day in Kraków, the bishop described how inspiring it is to see young people from different cultures and countries united in their faith. “The one, holy, catholic, apostolic faith… We say those words in the Creed, and we see it at Mass; we see it at our local events… but when you magnify that hundreds and thousands of times, wow!” Bishop Holley said. “That is just incredible.” As a bishop, he has also been able to witness the universality of the Catholic Church during visits to other countries, including a 2010 trip to Ghana and Nigeria, where he said he witnessed first-hand how Catholic Relief Services brings God’s love and mercy to those in need around the world. “It reminds me of Jesus’s offering of the loaves and fishes, blessed, broken and shared,” said Bishop Holley, who has served on the CRS Board of Directors. “That’s what CRS reminds me of, how they’re able to take whatever resources (they have) to bless and share it with others.” Bishop Holley also served as a member of the Washington InterFaith Network, the International Catholic Foundation for the Service of Deaf People, Catholic Athletes for Christ and with the D.C. and Maryland Catholic Conferences. A native of the South, Bishop Holley was born in Pensacola, Florida. While his mother was pregnant with the future bishop, she, along with her husband and their seven older children, converted to the Catholic faith. When Martin Holley was born on Dec. 31, 1954, he was named after the pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Cantonment, Florida, the family’s new parish priest. Bishop Holley is the 8th of 14 children of Sylvester and Mary Holley, both of whom are deceased. Bishop Holley attended Catholic elementary schools and was captain of the basketball team at Tate High School, where he is a member of the school’s Hall of Fame, and then attended Faulkner State Junior College in Bay Minette, Alabama. He played basketball and earned a degree in management at Alabama State University in Montgomery, where he was named the university’s outstanding collegian. Having felt the call to the priesthood from a young age, Bishop Holley attended Theological College in Washington and completed his seminary studies at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton, Beach, Florida. He was ordained as a priest of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee in 1987. In Florida, then-Father Holley served as a parochial vicar and later administrator of St. Mary Parish in Fort Walton Beach. He also served at St. Paul and Little Flower parishes in Pensacola. He served as spiritual director of the Serra Club of West Florida, which promotes vocations to the priesthood, and since 1983, he has been a member of the Joint Conference of the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus. Bishop Holley was ordained as a bishop of Washington in 2004 at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle and chose “His Mercy Endures” as his episcopal motto, after having developed a great devotion to St. Faustina and her message of Divine Mercy during his years as a priest. When he was appointed to Washington, he said he looked forward to getting to know the people there “as a friend, as a priest and as a bishop. I’m a man of deep prayer. I’ll try to do my best to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ, to love one another.” The bishop-elect of Memphis serves on a number of committees for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, including the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth; Pro-Life Activities; and National Collections. He also serves on committees for communications and cultural diversity and subcommittees on Africa, African-American Catholics, Hispanic affairs, and migration. He is the immediate past chaplain of the Knights of St. Peter Claver. The Diocese of Memphis comprises 10,682 square miles in Tennessee and has a total population of 1,570,077, of which 65,152 or 4 percent are Catholic. Bishop Steib, a native of Louisiana, is a former auxiliary bishop of St. Louis and has served as the bishop of Memphis since 1993. In his statement praising Bishop Holley’s appointment to Memphis, Cardinal Wuerl said, “While we will miss his presence here in Washington, we wish him every blessing as he assumes his duties at the service of what has been described as ‘The Good Samaritan on the banks of the Mississippi.’”
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