The Auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis has been appointed the 10th Bishop of Burlington in Vermont.
The Most Reverend Christopher James Coyne was appointed Monday and will be formally installed as pastor of Vermont's 118,000 Catholics on Jan. 29.
Christopher Coyne is well-known for his Boston accent in Indianapolis where he's served since 2011.
But he might be more widely-known online, where he's been a prominent part of the Catholic Church's "digital revolution." He posts regularly on his blog, on Twitter and Facebook, and he's even got a podcast.
Coyne says the effort is all consistent with the church's goal of quote "going out" in an effort to spread its teaching.
"The web page is like the church - people have to come to it to look at it," he said. "Whereas I think blogging, Facebook, Twitter, those kinds of things - podcasts, videos that I do - those are one more way of communicating the good news of the Catholic Church."
But as much as Coyne is trying to bring the Church's message into the 21st century, he also knows the last few years haven't been all been good news for the church as the institution confronted a widespread global health scandal.
Coyne was a spokesman for the diocese in Boston when an abuse scandal rocked the church from 2002 to 2005. He says he realizes those abuses happened in Vermont, too.
He says increasing the church's influence in Vermont (recently named the least religious state) will involve inviting a discussion with Vermonters about how it's doing. He knows that discussion won't always be comfortable.
"You'll get a lot of good people there, but you'll have to be ready to hear some of the tough remarks and take it," he said. "There are people who are angry at us."
Coyne says he's ready to have those conversations, and he hopes the church's answers will bring Vermonters back to Catholocism.
