The Diocese of Fresno welcomed Bishop Joseph V. Brennan as its sixth bishop at an Installation Mass celebrated at St. Anthony of Padua Church May 2. 

The 65-year-old Van Nuys native formally succeeded retiring Bishop Armando X. Ochoa as the Catholic Bishop of Fresno, assuming the leadership of a diocese vastly different from Los Angeles, where Brennan has was born, raised, and spent nearly four decades as a priest. 

From 2015 until now, he has served as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Pastoral Region. 

Present at the Mass were hundreds of Catholic faithful from around the diocese, local faith leaders, friends and family of Bishop Brennan, Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. Archbishop Christophe Pierre, and several other Catholic bishops from California. More than a hundred priests from the Diocese of Fresno and Archdiocese of Los Angeles concelebrated the Mass. 

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