Bishop Christopher J. Coyne (b. June 17, 1958) is the Auxiliary Bishop and former Apostolic Administrator of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis, based in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was appointed the Apostolic Administrator by Pope Benedict XVI, on September 21, 2011, upon the early retirement of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein on grounds of ill health due to cancer. He served as Apostolic Administrator until Pope Benedict named Archbishop Joseph William Tobin, C.SS.R., until then the Titular Archbishop of Obba and the Secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life (the Congregation for Religious), as the next Metropolitan Archbishop-elect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Auxiliary Bishop Coyne will work with Archbishop-elect Tobin until his formal installation as Archbishop at a date in the near future.
Bishop Coyne was born in Woburn, Massachusetts and ordained in 1986. He earned a bachelor's degree from UMass Lowell and earned a master's of divinity from St. John's Seminary in Brighton. He also has a doctorate in liturgy from the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome.
Bishop Coyne was a professor of Sacred Liturgy and Homiletics, as well as director of the Pre-Theology Program at St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts. He also served as Archdiocesan Director for the Office of Worship as well as Cabinet Secretary for Communications and Archdiocesan Spokesman for the Archdiocese of Boston. For four years Coyne was Pastor of Saint Margaret Mary Parish in Westwood, Massachusetts.
In January 2011, Pope Benedict XVI named Coyne Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. On March 2, 2011, Coyne was ordained a bishop in St. John the Evangelist Church in Indianapolis. He is the first auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis since 1933.
Bishop Coyne currently blogs and posts daily on Facebook and Twitter.