Catholic diocese gets new bishop

Fifteen months after the Most Rev. Robert J. Baker left the Catholic Diocese of Charleston for Birmingham, Ala., the Vatican has announced a new bishop for the state of South Carolina.

Monsignor Robert E. Guglielmone, a native New Yorker who has served since August 2007 as rector of St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre on Long Island, the See city of the Rockville Centre diocese, will be ordained and installed as bishop on March 25. He will take the helm of the Charleston diocese during a rocky period in the history of the church.

Bishop-elect Guglielmone will face several challenges, including an unresolved local sexual abuse settlement case; changing demographics in the Catholic community, uncertainty about parochial school funding and enrollment; economic crisis and poverty; and changing political sentiment nationwide that has prompted the church to assert its position on ethical issues such as abortion and stem-cell research.

Evangelization will be his primary focus, he said after a press conference Saturday, citing the 2000 Apostolic Letter by Pope John Paul II in which the late pontiff urged his church "to take up her evangelizing mission with fresh enthusiasm."

Guglielmone said that reiterating the message of Jesus Christ was the "challenge of the century."

He is leaving the sixth-largest U.S. diocese, with about 1.4 million Catholics, for one whose population is approximately 176,000. Before he became rector of Rockville Centre's St. Agnes Cathedral, Guglielmone was the diocesan director of clergy personnel, overseeing 450 priests and 300 deacons, he said. By contrast, South Carolina has a total of about 130 priests and 100 deacons.

"I am both humbled and grateful that His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI would entrust this awesome ministry to me," he said Saturday morning. "I must admit that I am a bit anxious about leaving Long Island where I have spent almost my whole life. However, I do trust in the Lord and am very encouraged by the wonderful sense of Southern hospitality I have already experienced."

South Carolina's smaller Catholic community represents an opportunity for the bishop-elect to inspire clergy to engage more fully with members of their parishes, Guglielmone said.

"What possibilities there are for tremendous inspiration and interaction," he said.

Guglielmone earned a degree in education and taught in public high school before enrolling at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, N.Y. He was ordained a priest in the Diocese of Rockville Centre on April 8, 1978, and received the papal title of "monsignor" in 1996.

Since his seminary days, Guglielmone has been active in Catholic Boy Scouting. He is currently chaplain for the International Catholic Conference of Scouting and the Holy See's World Ecclesiastical Assistant for Scouting.

He expressed sympathy for immigrants, saying the church must be a source of compassion. Catholic education has been, and will remain, one of his priorities, he said. And the church must be a light for the poor and those contending with economic hardship.

Guglielmone said he plans to be engaged in interfaith dialogue, acknowledging the diversity in the state and saying that, despite certain differences, it was important "to spend a lot of time working together."

Asked about the ongoing sexual abuse scandal, Guglielmone said he was still learning the particulars but that the unresolved issue "certainly has to be settled as much as possible."

"The church has to be a safe place for young people," he said.

A long-awaited hearing has been scheduled for Thursday in Dorchester County Circuit Court. Judge Diane Goodstein, who presided over a recent class-action settlement worth up to $12 million, is scheduled to hear arguments from the diocese and from attorneys representing a group of victims who opted out of the class action.

That group has been waiting since September 2007 to be paid $1.375 million in a separate civil settlement. Charleston attorney Gregg Meyers, who negotiated the separate settlement and sought to have it adjudicated in Charleston County, has accused church officials of stonewalling and colluding with class counsel and Goodstein, a charge they fiercely denied.

The diocese has said it could not pay Meyers' clients until all legal claims were resolved. The diocese also cited an unauthorized addition of a plaintiff to Meyers' settlement.

"We are happy to abide by the original agreement," diocese spokesman Steve Gajdosik has said. "The money is there, but we cannot pay it with this pending action."

The Rockville Centre diocese also has been caught up in the sexual abuse scandal. A 2002 Suffolk County grand jury investigation report accused the diocese of protecting 58 abusive priests. Its bishop since 2001, William Murphy, had been chief assistant to Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston.

In May 2007, a Long Island jury found the diocese and one of its parishes negligent in a rape and sodomy case A jury awarded two victims a combined $11.4 million in damages.

Asked about church politics, Guglielmone said that, as the nation engages in debates over abortion, stem-cell research and other controversial issues, ethical concerns will remain a focus of the diocese, including anti-abortion advocacy.

"We must encourage people to recognize their responsibility as citizens to challenge our nation to the highest ethical standards," he said.