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New Bishop for Rochester

ROCHESTER, NY – The Catholic Diocese of Rochester has a new bishop, Rhode Island Bishop Salvatore Matano.

The Diocese of Rochester, NY, finally has a bishop. He is Bishop Salvatore Matano, currently the bishop of the smaller Diocese of Burlington, Vt. Bishop Matano will be installed in Rochester in early January.

Bishop Matano, who has been described as strongly orthodox and loyal to Church teaching, will replace Bishop Matthew Clark who has long been considered one of the most liberal and, in some cases, anti-Rome prelates in the United States.

Clark’s stands in favor of women priests, his pro-gay stances and other positions in opposition to Church teaching placed him on a list of troublesome bishops in Rome.

Bishop Matano, on the other hand, is seen as a “son of the Church” to use a term recently made famous by Pope Francis and his appointment could pose a problem for the many liberals who surrounded Clark. During Clark’s tenure there was a sharp drop off in priestly vocations and Rochester is second only to Las Vegas in lack of annual priestly ordinations.

When he was named to Burlington in 2005, Bishop Matano inherited numerous priestly abuse cases but unlike Clark, Matano did not publish the names of all the priests who had been accused. He said this week he did all he could to bring healing to those abused by priests and their families.


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