USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Camden Bishop Named Coadjutor Bishop of Rockville Centre

Camden Bishop Named Coadjutor Bishop of Rockville Centre

WASHINGTON (December 6, 1998)--Pope John Paul II has named Bishop James T. McHugh of Camden, New Jersey, Coadjutor Bishop to Bishop John R. McGann of Rockville Centre, New York.

Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to the United States, announced the appointment.

A Coadjutor Bishop enjoys the right of succession which means that he becomes head of the diocese immediately upon the retirement or death of the incumbent diocesan bishop.

James Thomas McHugh was born in Orange, New Jersey, on January 3, 1932, the son of Edward Thomas and Caroline (Scavone) McHugh. He is a graduate of St. Venantius School and Our Lady of the Valley High School, both in Orange, and of Seton Hall University. He studied for the priesthood at Immaculate Conception Seminary, Darlington, New Jersey, and was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark on May 25, 1957.

After parochial assignments in Newark and Fort Lee, New Jersey, Father McHugh joined the staff of the United States Catholic Conference in 1966 and was named Director of the Division for Family Life in 1967 and staff director of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops' office for Pro-Life Activities in 1975. He received papal honors (with the title "monsignor") in 1971 and 1986.

After leaving the NCCB/USCC in 1978, Monsignor McHugh did advanced theological studies at the Pontifical University of St Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome, obtaining a doctorate in sacred theology in 1981. He has also done studies in sociology at Fordham University and The Catholic University of America.

Monsignor McHugh served as Vicar for the Parish and the Family in the Newark archdiocese and as the National Director of the Diocesan Development Project for Natural Family Planning. He was named Titular Bishop of Morosbisdus and Auxiliary Bishop of Newark in 1987 and served as the Vicar for Apostolates there. In 1989 he was named Bishop of Camden.

Bishop McHugh has served as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and is currently a consultor to the Pontifical Council on the Family. He has also served as an advisor to the Holy See's Mission to the United Nations.

Bishop McGann has been Bishop of Rockville Centre since 1976.

John Raymond McGann was born in Brooklyn on December 2, 1924, the son of Thomas and Mary (Ryan) McGann. He is a graduate of Our Lady of Good Counsel School, Brooklyn, and Cathedral High School and College. After studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary, Huntington, New York, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn on June 3, 1950. When the Rockville Centre diocese was founded in 1957, Father McGann was serving in St. Anne's Parish, Brentwood, which was within the territory of the new diocese.
Father McGann was named an assistant chancellor of Rockville Centre, beginning in 1957, and also secretary to the founding Bishop, Walter P. Kellenberg, and later secretary to the diocesan Board of Consultors. He was ordained Titular Bishop of Morosbisdus and Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre in 1971.

From 1984 to 1987, Bishop McGann served as Treasurer of the NCCB/USCC.