PORTLAND – A vesper service and reception will be held Wednesday, May 7, at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to celebrate the appointment of the Most Rev. Michael R. Cote as the fifth bishop of Norwich, Conn.

Cote will preach during the 7 p.m. prayer and the public is invited. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis; the cathedral will open at 6. A reception at the Guild Hall will follow.

Cote was born June 19, 1949, in Sanford. He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from St. Mary’s Seminary College in Baltimore, Md. He went on to Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he earned his master’s degree in theology. Pope John Paul VI ordained Cote to the priesthood at St. Peter’s Basilica in 1975.

Returning to Maine, he served as assistant pastor of St. Athanasius and St. John Church in Rumford and Holy Rosary in Caribou. He studied Canon Law at the Cathedral University of America from 1979 to 81 where he obtained his licentiate in Canon Law. He was appointed to the Diocesan Tribunal in 1981.

In 1989 he accepted a five-year appointment as secretary at the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican’s Embassy to the United States in Washington, D.C. In 1994, he returned to Diocesan ministry and was appointed as pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Auburn for a year.

Cote was ordained as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Portland in July 1995. He will be installed as bishop of Norwich on May 14.