In a liturgy with five Cardinals of the Catholic Church, four Bishops; three Apostolic Nuncios; local and visiting priests and religious; and family and friends, James Checchio was ordained a Bishop, and installed as the 5th Shepherd of Metuchen, this afternoon, May 3, at the Church of the Sacred Heart in South Plainfield.
The faithful gathered in the church was not only a demonstration of the importance of the creation of a new Bishop of the Catholic Church, but of Checchio’s “extraordinary ability to make friends,” said Bishop Bernard Hebda, Archbishop-elect of Saint Paul and Minnesota, and friend of Bishop Checchio, who served as homilist.
Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark, ordaining Bishop, with co-consecrators Paul Bootkoski, Bishop Emeritus of Metuchen; and Dennis Sullivan, Bishop of Camden, took part in the laying-on-of-hands, marking him as shepherd.
Dignitaries, and friends of Bishop Checchio expressed confidence in his new duties.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, like Checchio a past rector of the North American College, said the newly-ordained’s position in Rome demonstrates his “great love of priests, and gives him a great admiration for families, great qualifications for a Bishop.”
Blanche Moore first met Bishop Checchio in Rome almost 15 years ago, and the two have remained friends. After receiving his invitation to the ordination, she came up from the Diocese of Arlington, VA, and was in the pew with her niece, Mary Kelly Finegan. “He’s just the warmest, friendliest priest,” Moore said. “I know he will be wonderful for Metuchen.”
In remarks after Communion, the new Bishop asked the faithful of Metuchen “for your prayers, as I will be dependent upon them. Today is a day of abundant joy, and may I ever be a worthy instrument of joy.”
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