Leader of Diocese for 26 years dies

BEACON PHOTO | JOE GIGLI

LONGEST EPISCOPATE  Bishop Frank J. Rodimer is pictured at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of his ordination as a priest on May 19, 2001.

PATERSON  Bishop Emeritus Frank J. Rodimer, the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Paterson whose episcopate was the longest in the 80-year history of the Diocese (1978-2004), died Dec. 6. He was 91 years old.

When Bishop Rodimer became the sixth bishop of the diocese on Feb. 28, 1978, he had the unique distinction of being installed as the only priest of the Paterson Diocese to have ever been raised to the episcopacy.

As bishop, he served as leader of the diocese for 26 years until his retirement on June 1, 2004. During his ministry as bishop, he established 12 new parishes, ordained 91 priests and 179 permanent deacons and confirmed more than 100,000 Catholics.

His entire 67-year priesthood ministry was in the Paterson Diocese and he knew every bishop of the Diocese personally. When he decided to be a priest, it was the Paterson’s first bishop, Bishop Thomas McLaughlin, from whom he had to ask permission to become a seminarian.

Bishop Rodimer was born on Oct. 25, 1927 and raised in Rockaway. He attended Seton Hall Preparatory School, South Orange; St. Charles College, Catonsville, Md.; St. Mary Seminary, Baltimore; the former Immaculate Conception Seminary, Darlington; and the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C., prior to his ordination to the priesthood in St. John’s Cathedral, Paterson, on May 19, 1951.

He received the degree of Licentiate in Sacred Theology from The Catholic University of America in June 1951, and returned after his ordination for graduate studies. He received his doctorate in Canon Law in 1954. That June, he was appointed assistant chancellor of the Diocese and secretary of the Tribunal. He also served as assistant pastor of St. Brendan Parish, Clifton.

In 1959, he was appointed as the first diocesan director of Sacred Liturgy. He was also a member of the editorial board of The Advocate (the Newark Archdiocese’s newspaper which at the time also served the Paterson Diocese). He was named secretary to Bishop James Navagh in June 1963 and attended the Second Vatican Council with him.

In 1963, he was given the title of Papal Chamberlain by St. Pope Paul VI. He was appointed diocesan chancellor in 1964, and in 1966 secretary of the diocesan board of consultors. He also served as chairman of the building and sites commission and was elected a member of the Priests’ Senate.

During his years as a priest before becoming bishop, he served as parochial vicar of St. Brendan Parish in Clifton, Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Sparta and St. Paul Parish in Clifton, where he was pastor for 10 years until his appointment as bishop.

He was active in various ecumenical programs and was the first Catholic priest to serve as president of the Passaic-Clifton Council of Churches. He also served as chairman of the steering committee to form a diocesan Pastoral Council.

When Bishop Casey resigned for health reasons in June 1977, then-Msgr. Rodimer was elected by the board of consultors to be the administrator of the Diocese. He held this position until his appointment by St. Pope Paul VI as the sixth Bishop of Paterson on Dec. 13, 1977. He was ordained and installed as the bishop in St. John Cathedral, Paterson, on Feb. 28, 1978.

Following his ordination, Bishop Rodimer embarked upon an ambitious program of parish visitation, spending an entire weekend in each parish of the Diocese. These extended visits were accomplished over a five-year period. The bishop also reorganized the diocesan-level services into a structure of five secretariats within his first two years in office. After reflection upon his very enriching pastoral visits, he addressed an extended pastoral letter, “The Church of Paterson: A Vision,” on Feb. 28, 1983.

He committed the diocese to the full implementation of the Church’s evangelization strategy embodied in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults. He likewise established a diocesan policy that the Sacrament of Confirmation will ordinarily be received by young people in their sophomore or junior year of high school.

During his 26-year episcopacy, he established 11 parishes, and 19 parish churches were built.

He wrote a weekly column for The Beacon, addressing topics of current interest, as well as issues of faith and worship.

In 1985, he established a $7 million diocesan endowment to support Catholic schools and parishes and the diocesan ministries through the three-year fund raising campaign, “Share His Vision.” It also provided $3 million for purchasing land in the Diocese for future use as parish sites, and for major capital repairs to parish buildings in the urban areas of the Diocese.

With Edward Hennessey, a corporate leader, Bishop Rodimer was the co-founder of the Tri-County Schol­arship Fund to provide scholarships to needy students attending the Catholic high schools and elementary schools in the Diocese. More than $I0 million in scholarships have been awarded to students since the fund’s inception in 1981.

On Dec. 9, 1987, the Diocese celebrated the 50th anniversary of its establishment by Pope Pius XI on Dec. 9, 1937. In celebration of this Golden Anniver­sary, the Bishop commissioned a full scale history of the Catholic Church in northwest New Jersey, beginning with the Church’s infancy in the 18th century. This book, “Living Stones,” was written by Msgr. Raymond Kupke, diocesan archivist.

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson also underwent major repairs and liturgical renovation in preparation for the Diocese’s 50th anniversary. Bishop Rodimer rededicated the Cathedral on Dec. 9, 1987.

He promulgated a diocesan statement of mission and priorities for the Church of Paterson in April 1987. This statement was developed by a diocesan task force in light of the bishop’s 1983 vision statement and the reflections of the entire diocesan community on that vision statement.

In 1988, the diocesan Secretariats were reorganized to respond more directly to the diocesan priorities articulated in the 1987 statement of mission and priorities. A Hispanic Commission and a Black Catholic Commission were also established as part of this reorganization in which Bishop Rodimer was very involved with.

The Diocese, under Bishop Rodimer’s direction, responded to the Church’s new 1983 Code of Canon Law by reorganizing its Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors in light of the new canonical legislation. The bishop also established a diocesan Finance Council required by the Code. Finally, he established a diocesan system of deaneries to assist him with the proper di­rection of the parishes.

In 1989, he established a program, “Parishes in Partnership,” to foster interaction and mutual assistance between the suburban and urban parishes of the diocese.

Bishop Rodimer was a member or a former member of the following organizations: Board of Regents of Seton Hall University, South Orange; chancellor of the College of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station; the USCCB Campaign for Human Development Com­mittee; the USCCB Nominations Committee; the USCCB Committee on the Laity and Pax Christi. An active member of the Knights of Columbus, he attended several K of C national conventions and he actively supported the Knights in the Diocese, especially their pro-life work.

In 1991, Bishop Rodimer established the Bishop’s Annual Appeal, which invites the people of the Diocese each year to provide special help to those diocesan ministries which the bishop judged to be in particularly urgent need.

During the 1990s, he served as a member of the USCCB Committee on the Liturgy and also served as the Chairman of the Committee for the American College at Louvain, Belgium.

Bishop Rodimer visited Rome five times to present the Diocese of Paterson’s Ad Limina report to the Holy Father. His first Ad Limina visit coincided with the installation of Pope John Paul II on Oct. 11, 1978.

On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the Diocese, he dedicated Our Lady Seat of Wis­dom Oratory at the Diocesan Center in Clifton.

To help the Diocese meet the challenge of the new millennium he re-established a Diocesan Pastoral Council in 1998 to help the Diocese respond to the challenges that lie ahead for the diocesan Church in the 21st century.

During his second term on the USCCB’s Committee on the Liturgy, he was appointed chairman of the committee’s task group to review Environment and Art in Catholic Worship, the 1978 statement of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy, and to prepare a new document. To complete this project, he continued to serve on the Bishops’ Liturgy Committee as a consultant from 1997 to 2000. He chaired the process of study, drafting, and consultation that led to the promulgation of “Built of Living Stones.” This document was approved by the U.S. Bishops at their November 2000 meeting. It provides dioceses and churches in the United States with theological rationale, liturgical principles and practical guidance in the crucial work of designing, building and renovating churches.

During the Great Jubilee Year 2000, he led the parishes and the people of the diocese in conducting a major capital campaign, “Prepare the Way.” On a campaign goal of $40 million, more than $64 million was pledged to the work of the Diocese and its parishes to strengthen the Church of Paterson in the third millennium.

He marked his 50th anniversary at a Golden Jubilee Solemn Mass of Thanks­giving on May 19, 2001 in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI accepted his letter of retirement on June 1, 2004. He lived in retirement in Green Pond until moving to St. Joseph’s Home for the Elderly in Totowa earlier this year, where he resided at the time of his death.