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Fr. O’Connell to become Trenton coadjutor

Catholic News Service

Vincentian Father David O’Connell, the outgoing president of Catholic University, has been named coadjutor bishop of Trenton.

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WASHINGTON – The outgoing president of The Catholic
University of America, Vincentian Father David O’Connell, has
been named coadjutor bishop of Trenton, N.J., by Pope
Benedict XVI.

The appointment was announced June 4 in Washington by
Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United
States.

Bishop-designate O’Connell, 55, is a native of Philadelphia
who attended St. Joseph Preparatory High School in Princeton,
N.J., and colleges in New York and Pennsylvania before his
ordination for the Vincentians in 1982.

As coadjutor he will automatically succeed Trenton Bishop
John M. Smith upon his retirement. On June 23, Bishop Smith
will turn 75, the mandatory age at which bishops must submit
their retirement.

Bishop-designate O’Connell has been president of Catholic
University since 1998. In October he announced his intent to
step down at the end of the school year, which ended in May.

His episcopal ordination is scheduled for July 30 at St. Mary
of the Assumption Cathedral in Trenton. He has asked Bishop
Smith to be his consecrator, to be assisted by Archbishop
John J. Myers of Newark, N.J., and Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl
of Washington, Catholic University chancellor.

“Trenton has been a second home to me,” Bishop-designate
O’Connell said at a June 4 news conference in Trenton after
the announcement of his appointment.

“I grew up only a few miles from here in Langhorne, Pa., with
beautiful, loving parents and family. I can’t count how many
times I passed that bridge with the words written ‘Trenton
Makes, the World Takes.’ I went to high school in Princeton,
which is part of the Trenton Diocese. Bishop (George) Ahr
frequently attended ceremonies there.” The Vincentians have
also served in the diocese since 1913.

Born April 21, 1955, Bishop-designate O’Connell received a
bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Niagara University in
New York in 1978 and master’s degrees in divinity and moral
theology from Mary Immaculate Seminary in Northampton, Pa.,
in 1981 and 1983, respectively.

He was ordained a Vincentian priest in 1982, in Northampton.

Before his 12-year presidency at Catholic University,
Bishop-designate O’Connell had earned a licentiate and a
doctorate in canon law in 1987 and 1990, respectively, at the
university.

At the time of his appointment to Catholic University, he was
acting vice president and dean at Niagara University, as well
as associate dean at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y.

Bishop-designate O’Connell is a consultant to the Vatican
Congregation for Catholic Education, and an adviser to
committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. He has
also served as an ecclesiastical judge and canonical adviser
in numerous dioceses.

He said June 4 that he had chosen as his episcopal motto a
phrase uttered by Jesus and found in chapter 10, verse 45 of
the Gospel of Mark: “ministrare non ministrari,” or “to serve
and not to be served.” Anyone from Catholic University, he
added, “will tell you that these words are not simply a
quotation for me. They are an obsession.”

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