Martin David Holley

After high school, Holley entered Faulkner State Junior College, graduating in 1975 with an Associate of Arts degree in general studies.

He then attended St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, earning a Master of Divinity degree.

[2] On May 8, 1987, Holley was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee by Bishop Joseph Symons at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pensacola, Florida.

[4] He was a member of the Washington InterFaith Network, the International Foundation for the support of Deaf People, and Catholic Athletes for Christ.

[12] In June 2018, in response to complaints from the diocese, as well as a drop in parish donations, the Vatican sent Archbishops Wilton Gregory and Bernard Hebda on an apostolic visitation to Memphis for three days.

According to a 2018 report in the National Catholic Register, a seminarian had complained in a blog in 2009 that Holley, then a deacon, made sexual advances towards him at the Theological College in Washington.

Pope Francis named Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville as apostolic administrator to oversee the diocese until a new bishop was installed.

[18][19][16] On October 25, 2018, Holley told the Catholic News Agency that the Vatican removed him as bishop due to a vendetta against him by Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio.