HARTFORD (CT)
WNPR
By TUCKER IVES
Pope Francis has appointed a new leader of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. Bishop Leonard P. Blair will succeed current Archbishop Henry Mansell.
The announcement was made in Vatican City at noon, local time. A press conference will held in Bloomfield later this morning, and Blair will formally take over on December 16.
After the election of Pope Francis last spring, Mansell told WFSB-TV that he was ready to retire. Mansell has been Hartford’s archbishop since December 2003.
Blair will be the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese. He’s currently the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo, a position he has had since 2003. He has been an ordained priest since 1976.
During his time in Toledo, Blair was the bishop who assessed the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. The assessment was designed to determine if the LCWR, which represents about 80 percent of Catholic nuns, was acting in accordance with the church’s teachings.
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