The previous Memphis bishop was forced to resign.

New bishops were appointed to lead the dioceses of Fresno and Memphis and Los Angeles received a new auxiliary bishop. Pope Francis announced his selections on March 5. The pontiff named 68-year-old David Prescott Talley as the bishop to head the Memphis Diocese. The post had been vacant from October 2018. Francis had forced its previous chief, Bishop Martin D. Holley, to resign. Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., announced Talley’s elevation to the new post.

Archbishop Pierre also announced the decision taken by Pope Francis to accept Bishop Armando X. Ochoa's resignation from the Diocese of Fresno. The 75-year-old is being replaced by Joseph V. Brennan, who was working as the Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles. Brennan will be joining his twin brother on May 2 becoming Fresno’s sixth bishop. The Los Angeles post has been assigned to the second Filipino-American priest appointed U.S. bishop, Msgr. Alejandro D. Aclan.

Talley has had an illustrious career in the Catholic Church. He was born in 1950 in the city of Columbus, Georgia. His family was Southern Baptist and was raised in the denomination. Talley became a Catholic while still a student at Auburn University and has a doctorate in canon law. In 1989, he was a priest in the Atlanta Archdiocese. In 2013 he became the diocese’s auxiliary bishop. He served in Louisiana’s Alexandria Diocese since November 2016.

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