Canon Seamus Cunningham has been appointed the 13th Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle by Pope Benedict XVI.

The Bishop-elect is the present administrator of the vacant diocese, since the death of Bishop Kevin Dunn in March last year.

Canon Cunningham has spent nearly 43 years serving the diocese, including three years as spiritual director at Ushaw College, Durham.

The new bishop will be ordained at St Mary's Cathedral Church, in Newcastle, on March 20 at the noon feast of St Cuthbert, patron of the diocese.

Canon Cunningham said: "Although I was surprised to be asked to undertake this task, I am glad that the diocese will not have to face another change of style within very few years.

"I hope to start by continuing Bishop Kevin's initiatives before seeking anew what will be best at this time to meet the many challenges in spreading the Gospel today and working with other church bodies and the civil authorities."

The appointment of the new bishop has been welcomed in Sunderland.
Father Gordon Ryan, of St Joseph's and Holy Family parishes, said: "I am very happy that Seamus Cunningham has been appointed as our new bishop and that he has accepted.

"As a priest of the diocese for many years with a wide variety of experiences, he knows us and we know him so he can get stuck in fairly quickly.

"He is a very decisive man and the diocese needs decisions to be made about pastoral care and responsibility in the parishes in a rapidly-changing world both locally and more widely. He will listen to priests and people and then make up his own mind.

"In local parlance he is a 'canny lad' – in Ireland we would say he is a 'sound man'. I look forward to his leadership and I am sure that he will be guided by the Holy Sprit."

Canon Cunningham, 66, was born at Castlebar, Co Mayo, in Ireland, and studied for the priesthood at St John's College, Waterford,.
He was ordained priest for the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in June 1966.
He was assistant priest in Our Lady and St Joseph's parish, Brooms, in North West Durham, between 1966 and 1971.

He then spent time at English Martyrs, Newcastle, and the new Corpus Christi College, London, preparing to begin work as a Diocesan Religious Education and Cathechetics adviser.

He returned to live and work in the cathedral and visited schools throughout the diocese.

In 1978 he became director of religious education in the diocese and also chaplain to St Mary's Teaching Training College of the Sacred Heart of Education at Fenham.

Between 1984 and 1987, he was spiritual director to students for the priesthood at Ushaw College, Durham.

He returned to St Mary's Cathedral, spending the next 10 years as administrator and parish priest, before being appointed to the Chapter of Canons.

Canon Cunningham moved to his present parish of St Oswin's, Tynemouth, and St Mary's, Cullercoats in 1988 after a short sabbatical in the United States.

Bishop Ambrose Griffiths had appointed him one of four Vicars General in 2001.

After his ordination in May 2004, Bishop Kevin Dunn appointed Canon Cunningham as the sole Vicar General, a post he held until the Bishop's death on March 1, 2008.

He was with Bishop Kevin and his family throughout his illness and death, and was elected Diocesan Administrator on March 2, 2008.