SW News: Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Paul F. Russell, a Vatican diplomat, as an auxiliary bishop of Detroit. The news of the appointment was made public by the apostolic nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre on May 23.

He will be serving Archbishop Allen Henry Vigneron, along with the other auxiliary  bishops, Gerard William Batterby, José Cepeda, Robert Joseph Fisher, and Donald Hanchon.

Previously, Archbishop Russell had been serving as the apostolic nuncio to Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Azerbaijan. He was also the head of the diplomatic mission to Taiwan.

He was a graduate of the Saint John's Seminary in Boston, and was ordained a priest for the metropolitan archdiocese of Boston in 1987. Later, he received his licentiate and doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Spread over 3,901 square miles, the Archdiocese of Detroit located in the State of Michigan has a total population of 4,278,248 people. Among them, 1,131,660 are Catholic.