ROME — U.S. President Joseph Biden has a new bishop.
Pope Francis on Friday accepted the resignation of Wilmington, Delaware Bishop Francis Malooly, who at 77 is two years beyond the normal retirement age for bishops.
Francis appointed the current vicar for clergy in the Rockville Center, New York diocese, Monsignor William Koening, to replace Malooly.
Koening, 64, a Queens native, was ordained a bishop in Rockville Center in 1983 and held a series of parish and diocesan positions before being put in charge of the diocese’s clergy last year.
Biden, the second Catholic president of the United States, worships both at his home in Wilmington and in Washington.
Both Malooly and the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, have made clear that Biden is welcome to receive Communion at churches they oversee despite his support for abortion rights.
