By Communications Department - Archdiocese of Miami
Photographer: FROM DIOCESE OF ORLANDO WEBSITE
The appointment was announced in Washington, March 20, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan�, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Father Parkes was born on April 2, 1964, in Mineola, N.Y. He earned a bachelor�s degree in finance from Florida State University in Tallahassee, and began studies for the priesthood at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach. He continued his seminary studies at North American College, Rome, and earned a bachelor�s degree in theology and a licentiate in canon law from the Gregorian University.
He was ordained a priest for the Orlando Diocese in 1999. Assignments after ordination included parochial vicar, Holy Family Parish, Orlando, 1999-2005; and founding pastor, Corpus Christi Parish, Celebration, 2005-present. He has served as chancellor of the diocese since 2005, and vicar general since 2009.
The Pensacola-Tallahassee Diocese has 1,388,562 persons, with 62,545, or five percent, of them Catholic. It includes 18 counties across 14,000 square miles in Florida.
Archbishop Thomas Wenski, who has served the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee as apostolic administrator since the retirement of Bishop Ricard in March 2011, said "Bishop-elect Parkes served me well in a variety of capacities when I was the bishop of Orlando. The Holy Father has made an excellent choice in Bishop-elect Parkes, he is a good priest and a holy man. I am confident that he will serve the people of Pensacola-Tallahassee well whom I have grown very fond of during my year as their Apostolic Administrator. As Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Miami, I look forward to Bishop-elect Parkes' future ministry here in Florida as a successor to the Apostles."
At the same time Bishop-elect Parkes� appointment was announced, the Vatican nuncio also announced the appointment of Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Conn., as archbishop of Baltimore. He succeeds Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, who was named head of the Equestrian Order (Knights) of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem last August.
The pope also accepted the resignation of 76-year-old Bishop Thomas Doran from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., and appointed Msgr. David Malloy, 56, former general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to succeed him.
The pope also accepted the resignation of 76-year-old Bishop Thomas Doran from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Rockford, Ill., and appointed Msgr. David Malloy, 56, former general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to succeed him.
