Pope Name Greensburg, Pennsylvania Vicar General, Chancellor as Bishop of Erie

WASHINGTON—PopeBenedict XVI has named Msgr. Lawrence Persico, 61, the vicar general andchancellor of the Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, as the new bishop ofErie, Pennsylvania, and accepted the resignation of Bishop Donald Trautman, 76,from the pastoral governance of the Diocese of Erie.

The appointment and resignation were publicized in Washington, July 31, byArchbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Lawrence Persico was born November 21, 1950, in Monessen, Pennsylvania, to thelate John B. Persico and Helen Gush Persico. He attended St. Joseph Hall HighSchool in Greensburg (1965-1969), the Seminary of St. Pius X in Erlanger,Kentucky (1969-1973), and St. Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania(1973-1977). He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Greensburg on April 30,1977. He completed a licentiate in canon law at The Catholic University ofAmerica (CUA) in Washington in 1982.

Following ordination, he served as associate pastor of Immaculate ConceptionChurch in Irwin, Pennsylvania (1977-1980), assistant chancellor and chaplain ofAssumption Hall in Greensburg (1983-1984), and vice chancellor of the Dioceseof Greensburg (1984-1989).

Bishop-elect Persico has served a pastor of St. James Parish in New Alexandria,Pennsylvania, since 1998, chancellor of the diocese since 1989, and vicargeneral since 2005. He was appointed to the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference in1998 and elected its vice president in 2006. He was named a prelate of honor in2005 and invested as a Knight of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre ofJerusalem in 2010.

Donald Trautman was born June 24, 1936, in Buffalo, New York. He studied at OurLady of the Angels Seminary at Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York,and the University of Innsbruck, Austria, where he completed a licentiate indogma in 1962. He studied semitic languages at CUA from 1963-1964 and earned adoctorate in Scripture and dogma from St. Thomas Aquinas University in Rome in1966. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Buffalo on April 7, 1962, andordained an auxiliary bishop of Buffalo on April 16, 1985. Pope John Paul IIappointed him bishop of Erie on June 12, 1990. He was installed July 16 of thatyear.

The Diocese of Erie has 855,252 persons, with 221,550, or 26 percent, of themCatholic. It covers 13 counties, spanning 9,936 square miles in northwestPennsylvania.

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Keywords:Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio, Diocese ofErie, Diocese of Greensburg, Bishop Donald Trautman, Bishop-elect LawrencePersico, appointment, retirement, Pennsylvania

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