Pope Francis on Tuesday appointed Erie, Pennsylvania priest Monsignor Edward M. Lohse to lead the Diocese of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Msgr. Lohse, 61, succeeds Bishop Paul J. Bradley, 77, whose resignation was accepted by Pope Francis on May 23.

Bishop Bradley will continue to serve as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Kalamazoo until Lohse’s ordination in St. Augustine Cathedral on July 25, according to the diocese.

The Diocese of Kalamazoo, which comprises nine counties in southwest Michigan, has 59 parishes, 21 Catholic schools, and almost 80,000 Catholics.

Bishop-elect Lohse has been vicar general and moderator of the curia for the Diocese of Erie since 2017. 

During his 34 years as a Catholic priest, he has been a parish priest, high school chaplain, vocations director, chancellor, official in the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy, director of the child protection office, and an adjunct faculty member at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Lohse, the sixth of a family of seven children, grew up in Pennsylvania. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, he entered the seminary. He was ordained a priest in April 1989.

The bishop-elect also has a license and doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.

“The task ahead is a daunting one, but none of us walks the path of faith alone,” Bishop-elect Lohse said in a May 23 press release.

“I know that I will need to count on the prayers of Bishop Bradley, the priests, religious and laity of the diocese, and I pledge my prayers for them in return,” he said. “Together, we will go forward to proclaim Christ, and to meet him in the hearts of all God’s people in the Diocese of Kalamazoo.”