WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV has appointed Nicaraguan-born Father Pedro Bismarck Chau, rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark, New Jersey, as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark.
At the same time, the pope accepted the resignation of Newark Auxiliary Bishop Gregory J. Studerus, who is 77.
The appointment and resignation were publicized in Washington May 30 by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Bishop-designate Chau, 60, a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, was born July 18, 1964, in Managua, Nicaragua. He received a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2004 and a master’s degree in professional counseling in 2021 from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. He studied at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange and was ordained to the priesthood May 24, 2008.
After ordination, then-Father Chau’s first assignment was as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Mount Virgin in Garfield, New Jersey, (2008-2012), followed by three years as associate director of CYO and Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Archdiocese of Newark. He was assistant director of vocations for the archdiocese 2013-2016).
He was campus minister at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and at the Newman Center at Rutgers University in Newark (2015-2020). Concurrent with his assignments as campus minister, he was pastor of St. John’s Church and St. Patrick Pro-Cathedral in Newark.
The bishop-designate, who speaks English and Spanish, has been rector of the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart since 2020. Other responsibilities that have been part of his ministry include service on the archdiocesan priests’ council, chaplain for the pastoral ministry with the deaf, representative for V Encuentro, adjunct professor at Immaculate Conception Seminary and chaplain for the Order of Malta in the New Jersey area.
As an auxiliary bishop, he will join Auxiliary Bishops Manuel A. Cruz, Michael A. Saporito and Elias R. Lorenzo in ministering to the faithful with Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin.
The 500-square-mile Archdiocese of Newark has a Catholic population of over 1 million out of a total population of 3.1 million.