WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pope Francis has appointed Father Robert W. Marshall, vicar general of the Diocese of Memphis, Tennessee, as the bishop of Alexandria, Louisiana.

Marshall, 60, also is pastor of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Memphis. He succeeds Bishop David P. Talley, who was Alexandria’s bishop from 2017 until Pope Francis named him to be bishop of Memphis March 5, 2019.

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond has been serving as apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Alexandria in the interim.

The appointment was announced April 21 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Aymond said in a statement that he has known Marshall “for a number of years and am very pleased to welcome him to episcopal ministry here in the Diocese of Alexandria.”

The newly named bishop has been vicar general and pastor at the Memphis cathedral since 2019. Before being named pastor, he was parochial administrator at the cathedral for two years.

Born in Memphis June 17, 1959, he was ordained to the priesthood June 10, 2000, for the Diocese of Memphis.

Prior to entering the seminary, Marshall worked as a civil attorney. He earned a law degree in 1983 from the Humphreys School of Law at University of Memphis. He received a master of divinity degree from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans in 2000.

He earned his undergraduate degree in history in 1980 from Christian Brothers University in Memphis.

His pastoral assignments in the Memphis Diocese have included as parochial vicar at Incarnation Church in Collierville, 2000-2002; pastor at Sacred Heart Parish in Humboldt and St. Matthew Parish in Milan, 2002-2004; pastor at Church of the Ascension in Memphis, 2004-2012; and pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Cordova, 2012-2017.

The Alexandria Diocese of Alexandria covers over 11,100 square miles and has a Catholic population of about 35,400 out of a total population of close to 390,000.