Gregory Lawrence Parkes (born April 2, 1964) is an American prelate of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Parkes has been serving as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg in Florida since 2017. He served as bishop of the

Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

in Florida from 2012 to 2016.

Early life and education

Gregory Parkes was born on April 2, 1964, in

Mineola, New York Mineola is a village in and the county seat of Nassau County, on Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 18,799 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from an Algonquin Chief, Miniolagamika, which means "pleasant village". ...

. His brother

Stephen Parkes Stephen Douglas Parkes (born June 2, 1965) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has served as the bishop of the Diocese of Savannah in Georgia since September 2020. Early life and education Stephen D. Parkes was born in M ...

is the Bishop of Savannah in Georgia. For primary school, Gregory Parkes attended St. Rose of Lima School in Massapequa, New York. Parkes graduated from

Massapequa High School Massapequa High School is a public high school located in Massapequa, New York, United States, for students in grades 10 through 12. As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,825 students and 142.4 classroom teachers (on an ...

and attended

Daytona Beach Community College Daytona State College (DSC) is a public college with its main campus in Daytona Beach, Florida. DSC also has 6 smaller regional campuses throughout Volusia and Flagler counties. It is part of the Florida College System. The college offers more ...

in Daytona, Beach, Florida. He earned a Bachelor of Finance degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and worked in banking in Tampa for seven years. Parkes decided to become a priest after attending morning masses and prayers. He studied for the priesthood at

St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary located in Boynton Beach, Florida for the education and formation of seminarians to the Roman Catholic priesthood. St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary was established to form m ...

in Boynton Beach, Florida. In 1990, Parkes entered the Pontifical North American College and the

Pontifical Gregorian University The Pontifical Gregorian University ( it, Pontificia Università Gregoriana; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana,) is a higher education ecclesiastical school ( pontifical university) located in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as ...

in Rome, where he received a

Bachelor of Theology The Bachelor of Theology degree (BTh, ThB, or BTheol) is a three- to five-year undergraduate degree in theological disciplines and is typically pursued by those seeking ordination for ministry in a church, denomination, or parachurch organization. ...

degree and a Licentiate in Canon Law in 2000.

Priesthood

On June 26, 1999, Parkes was ordained a priest for the

Diocese of Orlando The Diocese of Orlando ( la, Dioecesis Orlandensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Florida. It encompasses about spanning Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Marion, Lake, Volusia, Brevard, Polk, and S ...

by Bishop Norbert Dorsey. After his ordination, Parkes served as the

parochial vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

of Holy Family Parish in Orlando, Florida, from 1999 to 2005. He was the founding pastor of Corpus Christi Parish in Celebration, Florida, serving there from 2005 to 2012. Parkes served as chancellor of the diocese from 2005 to 2012. He became its

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop' ...

in 2009.

Episcopal career

Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee

On March 20, 2012,

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the soverei ...

appointed Parkes as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee. He attended his first Ad Limina meeting prior to consecration. Parkes was installed and consecrated on June 5, 2012, at St. Paul's Church in Pensacola, Florida. Archbishop

Thomas Wenski Thomas Gerard Wenski (born October 18, 1950) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was appointed Archbishop of Miami by Pope Benedict XVI on April 20, 2010 and was installed on June 1, 2010. He previously served as Bishop of ...

was the consecrating prelate. Bishops John Noonan and Felipe Estévez were the co-consecrators.

Bishop of St. Petersburg

On November 28, 2016,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

appointed Parkes as bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg, succeeding Bishop Robert Lynch. Parkes was installed at the Cathedral of Saint Jude the Apostle in St. Petersburg on January 4, 2017. For his pastoral motto, Parkes chose “To your name give the glory” from Psalm 115, Verse 1. On November 14, 2018, Parkes was elected treasurer of the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

(USCCB). On October 17, 2018, Parkes and the Diocese of St. Petersburg were named in a sexual abuse lawsuit by Mark Cattell, a Virginia resident. Cattell alleged that, at age nine, he had been abused in 1981 by Robert D. Huneke, a priest at Christ the King Parish in Tampa. In 1980, Huneke had sent a letter to the Bishop of Rockville Centre in New York, saying he had abused a boy named John Salveson years earlier in New York. On August 7, 1981, Salveson, now an adult, had written Bishop William Larkin about Huneke. Despite Salveson's complaints, the diocese did not removed Huneke from ministry until 1982. Parkes attended his second Ad Limina visit in 2019. While meeting with Francis, the Pope noticed Parkes' 6'8" height and asked if he played

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. Parkes started a "View from the Top"

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

, giving an overview of the diocese, and his "Invitation to Worship" podcast, giving a quick overview of the weekly reading.

References

External links

Diocese of Saint Petersburg Official Site

Episcopal succession

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parkes, Gregory 1964 births Living people People from Mineola, New York Florida State University alumni Pontifical North American College alumni Pontifical Gregorian University alumni Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Roman Catholic bishops of Pensacola–Tallahassee