Mark O'Toole (bishop)

Born in Southwark, England, the youngest son of Marcus and Maura O’Toole, who originally came from the Irish-speaking community of Connemara, Galway, Ireland. He attended St Ignatius Primary School, Stamford Hill and St Thomas More Secondary school in Wood Green, leaving in 1981 with four ‘A’ levels before going to the University of Leicester, where he graduated with a B.Sc. in geography in 1984. [2]

He commenced his studies for the priesthood at Allen Hall Seminary in Chelsea and was ordained a priest on 9 June 1990 by Basil Hume for the Archdiocese of Westminster at the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Precious Blood.[3]

Between 1990 and 1992 he studied for an M.Phil. in theology at the University of Oxford with a thesis on the relationship between divine and human freedom, supervised by the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, Rowan Williams. [2]

Between 2002 and 2008 he served as the private secretary to Cormac Murphy-O'Connor before his appointment as the rector of Allen Hall Seminary in September 2008.[4]

On 9 November 2013, O'Toole was appointed the ninth bishop of Plymouth by Pope Francis. He received his episcopal consecration on 28 January 2014.[4] He was the first new bishop of England and Wales appointed by Pope Francis. [5]

In O'Toole's homily during the Stella Maris Mass for seafarers on 25 September 2014 in Plymouth Cathedral, O'Toole expressed an affinity with the mission of the Apostleship of the Sea, the Catholic charity that provides pastoral and practical support to all seafarers. He said this was because his grandfather was something of a seafarer and fisherman who owned his own boat and made a living in trading goods and supplies off the West coast of Ireland.[6]