Pope names Philadelphian new Bishop of Harrisburg
Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has been named bishop of the 244,000-member Diocese of Harrisburg.
Bishop Joseph P. McFadden, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, has been named bishop of the 244,000-member Diocese of Harrisburg.
McFadden, 63, will become the 10th Bishop of Harrisburg at his installation August 18. He succeeds Bishop Kevin Rhoades, who left last year to head the Ft. Wayne-South Bend, Ind. diocese.
"I come with only one agenda, and that is to share with you my faith in Jesus Christ," McFadden, 63, said at a Tuesday news conference in Harrisburg.
Earlier in the day, Cardinal Justin Rigali announced that Pope Benedict XVI also had named Msgr. Michael J. Fitzgerald to succeed McFadden as an auxiliary bishop in Philadelphia. Fitzgerald, 62, is a priest of the archdiocese and a canon lawyer.
Since he was made an auxiliary bishop in 2004, McFadden's duties have included oversight of Catholic education in the five-county Philadelphia archdiocese, its development and information technology, and the vicariates of Bucks County and northern Philadelphia.
As head of the archdiocese's $200 million capital campaign, "Heritage of Faith, Vision of Hope," he helped raise $176 million since 2008.
After graduating from St. Thomas More High School for Boys and St. Joseph's University, McFadden was a teacher and basketball coach at West Catholic High School for Boys before entering St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood. Since his ordination in 1981, he has served several parishes and was the seminary's spiritual director.
The Harrisburg diocese comprises 15 counties in central Pennsylvania. For the past year, it has been administered by the Rev. Chester P. Snyder, pastor of St. Joseph Parish in Mechanicsburg.
Fitzgerald will assume most of McFadden's current duties, Rigali said Tuesday, though indicating the capital campaign might not be among them.
Rigali will consecrate both Fitzgerald and Bishop-elect John J. McIntyre on Aug. 6 at the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul. Rigali announced McIntyre's appointment June 8.
An attorney before deciding to seek ordination, Fitzgerald holds degrees in both civil law and canon law. He is judicial vicar of the Metropolitan Tribunal of Philadelphia, the archdiocese's church court, which hears requests for marriage annulments and resolves internal matters of church law.
Fitzgerald was founding director of of the archdiocesan Office for Legal Services in 1991. He was made a monsignor in 2003 and served as vice-rector of St. Charles Seminary from 2004 to 2007.
One of nine children of Dorothy and Edwin Fitzgerald, he moved from Montclair, N.J., to the Philadelphia area as a boy. He attended parish schools in the city and Bridgeport, and Bishop Kenrick High School in Norristown.
He said he had briefly contemplated priesthood while in elementary school but then put those thoughts aside. Only after earning a bachelor's degree from Temple University in 1970 and a law degree from Villanova University law school in 1973 did he feel called again.
The decision to abandon a career in civil law was "difficult," he said, but he has "never regretted" becoming a priest. He entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained in 1980.
He asked the Catholic community of Philadelphia on Tuesday to "pray that I will be a good bishop."