His Holiness Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, STD as the fifth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford. The announcement was made on Tuesday, October 29th at 12:00 noon, Vatican City Time (7 a.m. EDT).

Bishop Blair will be officially introduced as the new archbishop during a press conference at the Archdiocesan Center at Saint Thomas Seminary, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloomfield, on Tuesday, October 29th, at 10 a.m. The press conference was streamed on the archdiocesan website at: archdioceseofhartford.org and ortv.org. It was broadcast live on WJMJ-FM Radio (88.9/Hartford, 93.1/Hamden, 107.1/New Haven).

Bishop Blair, 64, has been the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Toledo since 2003. He was ordained a priest in 1976. He succeeds Archbishop Henry J. Mansell, who has been the Archbishop of Hartford since December 2003, and who has passed the age of retirement.
Bishop Blair will be installed as the Archbishop of Hartford on Monday, December 16th at the Cathedral of Saint Joseph, 140 Farmington Ave., Hartford.