NEWARK (NJ)
The Record
JULY 3, 2014
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
Bishop Edgar da Cunha, a high-ranking official in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, has been appointed by Pope Francis to lead the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, church officials announced this morning.
The new bishop, who is 60, served most recently as the top deputy to Newark Archbishop John J. Myers since his appointment in June last year, during fallout from a scandal involving a priest accused of sex abuse in a Wyckoff parish. In Fall River diocese, da Cunha will shepherd 300,000 parishioners in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod.
He will succeed Bishop George W. Coleman, who announced his retirement in February upon turning 75. He is set to be installed on Sept. 24.
“I could never, in my wildest dream, imagine myself standing here as the future Bishop of this diocese,” he said in prepared remarks for an 11 a.m. press conference in Fall River. “Only God’s plan, and God’s will, could make it possible.”
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