By Ed Stannard
New Haven Register
June 30, 2010
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/30/news/doc4c2bb25ed1583787332390.txt
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| Bishop Peter Rosazza. |
Bishop Peter A. Rosazza of New Haven has retired as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Archbishop Henry J. Mansell announced today.
Rosazza submitted his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI in February when he turned 75 and it was accepted effective today.
He still plans to live in New Haven and serve the archdiocese’s Latino Catholics, as he has for 22 years, most of that time as vicar general of the Hispanic apostolate.
“Now I can take more time off or travel a little more but I’ll still stay here and help in the diocese” with confirmations, celebrating Mass and other pastoral roles, he said Wednesday.
“I am profoundly grateful for all his talented and dedicated work for the archdiocese,” Mansell said in his announcement. “I am personally grateful for all the assistance and advice he has provided for me since my arrival in 2003. His commitment to continue his involvement well into the future is deeply appreciated.”
Rosazza has a residence at the Hospital of Saint Raphael on Chapel Street, as well as a condo overlooking the Quinnipiac River.
“I just think the world of New Haven,” he said. One of the pleasures, he said, is “to have seen the great influx of people … Latinos, especially from Mexico, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Colombia — to have seen that within the last 12 years, it’s been phenomenal.”
With a beatific demeanor, Rosazza has become well known both in and outside the local Catholic community, both as a pastor and a worker for social justice. “His dynamic presence, I am sure, will continue to edify us throughout the archdiocese,” Mansell said in his statement.
Rosazza was ordained a priest at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in 1961 and served at churches in West Hartford and Hartford. He was named bishop in 1978 by Pope Paul VI and lived in Waterbury before moving to New Haven in 1988.
Rosazza is adviser to the National Catholic Student Coalition; founder of the Naugatuck Valley Project, a coalition of churches and labor unions; and Elm City Congregations Organized, a coalition of 18 churches in the New Haven area that persuaded Kmart to stop selling guns in the city and fought to remove liquor stores from near schools.
He was one of five bishops who drafted the U.S. Catholic Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on the U.S. Economy and Catholic Social Teaching in 1986.
Contact: estannard@newhavenregister.com
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