The Most Rev. Thomas J. Rodi was installed as the Roman Catholic archbishop of Mobile during a Friday afternoon mass.

More than 25 bishops and archbishops, among other clerics and an overflow crowd of parishioners, attended the installation mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Rodi, the former bishop of the Biloxi, Miss., diocese, succeeds Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb, who retired. Pope Benedict XVI appointed Rodi to the post April 2.

Rodi will minister to some 68,331 Catholics in 28 counties of south Alabama.

Rodi, 58, a New Orleans native, has a law degree from Tulane University, among other academic degrees.

Ordained in 1978, Rodi began serving in parishes in the New Orleans area. He said in a previous interview that he wanted to be a parish priest, “and that remains my first love.”

Rodi also will work as Biloxi’s administrator until a new bishop is named there.

On the Net:

www.mobilearchdiocese.org.