Pope John Paul II has named Auxiliary Bishop Gordon D. Bennett of Baltimore to be the new bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica, succeeding Bishop Paul M. Boyle, a Detroit native who turned 78 in May.
Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, papal nuncio to the United States, announced the appointment in Washington July 6. The Mandeville Diocese has 8,200 Catholics in a population of 576,000.
Bishop Bennett, 57, is a Jesuit, former principal and president of Loyola High School in Los Angeles, and one of 10 active African-American bishops in the United States. He has been an auxiliary bishop of Baltimore for six years.
Born in Denver Oct. 21, 1946, he made his first vows as a Jesuit in 1966 and was ordained a priest June 14, 1975. He studied at the Jesuit College of Queen of Peace in Montecito, Calif.; Mount St. Michael's Scholasticate at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash.; the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif.; and Fordham University in New York.
He has master's degrees in theology and education. Besides English, he speaks Spanish, Italian and French and a little Portuguese and German.
He was president of Loyola High School in Los Angeles when he was named a Baltimore auxiliary in December 1997. Before that he had served as rector and novice master at Queen of Peace Novitiate in Montecito and as principal of Loyola High.
Ordained a bishop March 3, 1998, he heads the urban vicariate of the Baltimore Archdiocese.
---CNS |