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WASHINGTON (June 1, 2000) – Pope John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop Curtis J. Guillory, SVD, of Galveston-Houston as Bishop of Beaumont, Texas. He also named Auxiliary Bishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans to be Coadjutor Bishop of Austin.
Bishop Guillory succeeds Most Reverend Joseph A. Galante who was named Coadjutor Bishop of Dallas, November 23, 1999.
Bishop Aymond will serve as Coadjutor to the Most Reverend John E. McCarthy, Bishop of Austin since 1985. A Coadjutor Bishop enjoys the right of succession which means that he becomes head of a diocese immediately upon the retirement or death of the incumbent diocesan bishop.
Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, announced the appointments.
Curtis Guillory was born in Mallet, Louisiana on September 1, 1943. The oldest of sixteen children, he attended St. Ann's elementary school in Mallet. In August, 1960, he entered the seminary of the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where he was ordained a priest on December 16, 1972.
He also studied at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and at Creighton University.
Bishop Guillory was associate pastor of St. Augustine church, New Orleans, from 1972 to 1976, when he was named pastor. He continued to serve that parish until 1982 when he became Director of the Augustine Tolton House of Studies in New Orleans.
He was named Titular Bishop of Stagno and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston on December 29, 1987.
Bishop Guillory served a three-year term as Chairman of the Bishops' Committee for African American Catholics. He also served on the Committee on the Diaconate, the Committee for the Church in Latin America, and the Committee on Education.
Gregory Michael Aymond was born in New Orleans on November 12, 1949.
He attended elementary and secondary schools in New Orleans and entered St. Joseph Minor Seminary in 1971. He earned a master of divinity degree at Notre Dame Major Seminary in 1975. Bishop Aymond was ordained to the priesthood on May 10, 1975.
Following ordination, he served on the faculty of St. John Vianney Preparatory Seminary from 1973 to 1981. He was on the faculty of Notre Dame Seminary and Director of Pastoral Field Education there from 1981 to 1986, when he was named Rector-President. He was also archdiocesan director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith and of the Holy Childhood Association.
Bishop Aymond was named Titular Bishop of Acolla and Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans on November 19, 1996.
The diocese of Beaumont comprises nine counties in South East Texas. It has a Catholic population of nearly 88,000 in a total population of over 577,000. The Austin diocese, in south central Texas, comprises some two dozen counties with a Catholic population of 350,000 in a total population of 1.9 million.