HOW ATLANTA, GA ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY WELCOMES NEW BISHOP! (2203 hits)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FROM ATLANTA, GA ARCHBISHOP WILTON D. GREGORY!
Friends say he has ‘heart of a shepherd’
ATLANTA—Pope Francis has named Father Bernard E. “Ned” Shlesinger III, a priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.
Bishop-designate Bernard E. “Ned” Shlesinger III, a priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, speaks during a 9:30 a.m. news conference at the Archdiocese of Atlanta Chancery May 15. Photo By Michael Alexander
Bishop-designate Shlesinger, 56, was most recently the director of spiritual formation for St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, where he has been on the faculty for four years. In the Diocese of Raleigh, he served as a pastor, vocations director and as a member of the presbyteral council.
Born in Washington, D.C., and raised in northern Virginia, the bishop-designate was ordained to the priesthood in June 1996. He is a graduate of Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia, and served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
His seminary studies took place at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, where he completed a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology.
He will join Bishop Luis R. Zarama in assisting Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory. The archdiocese had the ministry of two auxiliary bishops, but in September 2016, Bishop David P. Talley was elevated by Pope Francis to serve as bishop of the Diocese of Alexandria, Louisiana.
In a morning news conference May 15 at the Chancery, Archbishop Gregory introduced Bishop-designate Shlesinger and expressed deep gratitude to Pope Francis for the appointment.
As a priest of Raleigh, the bishop-designate comes from a diocese within the ecclesiastical Province of Atlanta, Archbishop Gregory said.
“He has long enjoyed the endorsement of the bishops of our province and the well-deserved respect, admiration and affection of the clergy, religious and faithful of the Diocese of Raleigh,” said Archbishop Gregory. “Ned is a man of prayer, prudence and apostolic zeal. He is eminently qualified to assume these new responsibilities as auxiliary bishop in Atlanta and I welcome him with an enthusiastic and jubilant heart.”
“Deeply shocked … grateful to God”
The bishop-designate greeted employees of the archdiocese as they arrived for the announcement with handshakes and conversation.
His ordination as a bishop will be celebrated at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta on a date to be announced.
“I am just delighted to present you, my Atlanta family, to him,” Archbishop Gregory said. “Over the next months and years, you will come to know what a wonderful man he is, how kind and good … and he’s very nervous right now.”
