I want to listen to people and discern with them the best way forward

Edwin Regan, Bishop of Wrexham

One source told BBC Wales's Good Morning Wales programme the appointment of Bishop Regan was a highly unusual move, usually restricted to a diocese where the sitting Bishop had died.

Fresh calls for the leader of the Catholic Church in Wales to go followed a BBC documentary, which uncovered evidence that Archbishop Ward ignored serious warnings about paedophiles working in his diocese.

It was revealed the archbishop had ignored serious warnings about Father John Lloyd - jailed in 1998 - and father Joe Jordan.

Father Jordan was on secondment at St Mary's church, Canton

The Archbishop of Cardiff had expressed sorrow over events and he said he always acted in good faith.

A spokesman for the Catholic Media Office said: "Pope John Paul II has appointed the Rt Rev Edwin Regan, Bishop of Wrexham, to be apostolic administrator for the Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff.

"The position will be a temporary appointment to provide episcopal governance for the diocese while the current Archbishop, the Most Rev John Aloysius Ward, is convalescing.

"Archbishop Ward has been recovering from deep vein thrombosis since November."

Archbishop Ward wrote to the Pope asking him to appoint another Archbishop to work alongside him.

Bishop Regan is now due to meet the chapter of canons to present himself to the diocese.

He told BBC Wales he would do his best to fulfill his new role.

"It gives the church in south Wales a chance to come to terms with what has happened.

'Be a bridge'

"I want to listen to people and discern with them the best way forward.

"I am sure a lot of the administration can be dealt with in north Wales. I will give the archdiocese of Cardiff my attention without neglecting my duties here."

Bishop Regan added he would act according to the motto: "Let him who wishes to be a leader, be a bridge."

The Bishop of Wrexham was born in Port Talbot in 1935 and was ordained as a priest of the Cardiff Archdiocese in 1959.