Peter Anthony Rosazza (born February 13, 1935) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the

Archdiocese of Hartford The Archdiocese of Hartford is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties in the U.S. State of Connecticut. The archdiocese includes about 470,000 Catholics, more ...

from 1978 to 2010.

Biography

Early life

The eldest child of Aldo and Agatha (née Dinneen) Rosazza, Peter Rosazza was born on February 13, 1935, in New Haven, Connecticut, and raised in Torrington, Connecticut. He attended St. Francis Elementary School in Torrington and graduated from

Torrington High School Torrington High School is the lone public high school in the city of Torrington, Connecticut. The current high school building opened in 1963 and was renovated in 2000. Community Torrington is the commercial, industrial, and financial center of ...

in 1952. Rosazza studied at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, for a year before entering St. Thomas Seminary in Bloomfield, Connecticut. He then attended St. Bernard Seminary in Rochester, New York and

Saint-Sulpice Seminary , image = Paris Saint-Sulpice Fassade 4-5 A.jpg , image_size = , pushpin map = Paris , pushpin label position = , coordinates = , location = Place Saint-Sulpice6th arrondis ...

in Paris

Priesthood

Rosazza was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Jacques Le Cordier for the Archdiocese of Hartford in Rome on June 29, 1961. After returning to Connecticut, Rosazza served as

assistant pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

at St. Timothy Parish in West Hartford, Connecticut. He later joined the

faculty Faculty may refer to: * Faculty (academic staff), the academic staff of a university (North American usage) * Faculty (division), a division within a university (usage outside of the United States) * Faculty (instrument) A faculty is a legal in ...

of St. Thomas Seminary, where he taught French, Spanish, and Italian. In 1972, Rosazza became co- pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, the mother church of Hartford's Hispanic Catholic community.

Auxiliary Bishop of Hartford

Pope Paul VI appointed Rosazza as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford and titular bishop of Oppidum Novum on February 28, 1978. He was consecrated on June 24, 1978 by Archbishop

John Whealon John Francis Whealon (January 15, 1921 – August 2, 1991) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford in Connecticut from 1968 to 1991. Whealon previously served as an auxiliar ...

, with Bishops John Hackett and Ulises Vargas serving as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churches, ...

. As auxiliary bishop, Rosazza was assigned in 1981 to

pastoral A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...

work in Waterbury, Connecticut. Between 1980 and 1986, he served as a member of the Committee of Bishops that wrote the pastoral letter Economic Justice for All. In 1988, he was transferred to a parish in New Haven, Connecticut. On February 2, 1997, Rosazza was named episcopal vicar for Spanish-speaking Catholics in the archdiocese. Rosazza was a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee for Social Development and World Peace and was liaison with Brazilian Catholics for the Committee on Migration and Refugees. He also served as bishop advisor to the National Catholic Student Coalition. He is one of the founders of the Naugatuck Valley Project, a coalition of churches and labor union locals as well as ECCO (Elm City Congregations Organized), a community organization of 18 churches in the New Haven, Connecticut area.Rosazza was one of five American bishops who drafted the USCCB pastoral letter on the U.S. Economy and

Catholic social teaching Catholic social teaching, commonly abbreviated CST, is an area of Catholic doctrine concerning matters of human dignity and the common good in society. The ideas address oppression, the role of the state (polity), state, subsidiarity, social o ...

. On January 19, 2004, Rosazza announced the resignation of Andrew Brizzolara, the pastor of St. Michael's Parish in New Haven. Brizzolara had been accused of sexual abuse in the 1980's during his time serving in the Archdiocese of Boston.In December 2009, Rosazza sat for a one-hour public radio interview on the

Colin McEnroe Colin McEnroe (born 1954) is an American columnist and radio personality. He hosts ''The Colin McEnroe Show'' on Connecticut Public Radio, writes a weekly column that runs in eight Hearst Communications, and writes a newsletter also for Hearst. B ...

show. On June 30, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI accepted Rosazza's letter of resignation as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Hartford, submitted when Rosazza turned age 75 on February 13, 2010.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford Official Site

Episcopal succession

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosazza, Peter Anthony 1935 births Living people Religious leaders from New Haven, Connecticut 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Dartmouth College alumni Seminary of Saint-Sulpice (France) alumni Catholics from Connecticut 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States