Alfred Clifton Hughes

infobox bishopstyles
name=Alfred Hughes
dipstyle=The Right Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Bishop
deathstyle=not applicable |

Alfred Clifton Hughes (born December 2, 1932) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He serves as the thirteenth and current Archbishop of New Orleans, having previously served as Bishop of Baton Rouge from 1993 to 2002.

Biography

Alfred Hughes was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, as the third of the four children of Alfred and Ellen (née Hennessey) Hughes; he has two older sisters, Dorothy Callahan and Marie Morgan, and a younger brother, a Jesuit priest named Kenneth. Hughes studied at St. John’s Seminary College, from where he received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1954, and then furthered his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University until 1958.

He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on December 15, 1957, and then did pastoral work before returning to the Gregorian to obtain a doctorate in spiritual theology from 1959 to 1961. Upon his return to the United States, he became a professor, as well as spiritual director and lecturer, at his "alma mater" of St. John’s Seminary in 1962.

On July 21, 1981, Hughes was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Titular Bishop of "Maximiana in Byzacena" by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 14 from Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, with Bishops Thomas Daily and John D'Arcy serving as co-consecrators. Hughes served as Rector of St. John’s Seminary from 1981 to 1986, and as vicar general and vicar of administration from 1990 until 1993.

He was then named Bishop of Baton Rouge on September 7, 1993, and was installed as such on November 7 of that same year. On February 16, 2001, Hughes was made Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans, serving under Archbishop Francis Schulte. He visited ninety of the archdiocese’s 142 parishes when he arrived there to become more familiar with the people.

Hughes succeeded Schulte as Archbishop of New Orleans upon the latter’s retirement on January 3, 2002. His tenure has been marked by the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005, after which he made a televized appearance with Bishop Robert Muench (his successor in Baton Rouge), saying, “God has brought us to our knees in the face of disaster. We are so overwhelmed, we do not really know how to respond. Powerlessness leads us to prayer. And we know when we turn to God, God offers us his grace” [Catholic News Service. [http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0504974.htm Louisianans face long recovery from Katrina, New Orleans flooding] August 31, 2005] . In response to questioning religion during the hurricane’s aftermath, Hughes also said, “People can either turn inward on themselves and lose hope, or they turn upward to God and outward to other people. Our faith teaches us to do the latter, to really believe that God is present and is asking us to be partners with him in the recovery and restoration” [USA Today. [http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2007-07-18-katrina-faith_N.htm A Katrina survivor stands fast in her faith] 2006] .

Questions have also been raised by Hughes’s handling of sexual abuse cases by the clergy, in both Boston and New Orleans. For this, he has apologized and said, “Our action or inaction failed to protect the innocents among us, the children. I ask for forgiveness" [Catholic Bishops and Sex Abuse. [http://www.bishop-accountability.org/resources/resource-files/databases/DallasMorningNewsBishops.htm ARCHBISHOP ALFRED HUGHES] ] .

The Archbishop has placed an emphasis on evangelization as a major theme of his tenure. He also sits on numerous committees of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, including that which oversees the use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

References

External links

* [http://archdiocese-no.org/archbishop/Hughes-bio.htm Archdiocese of New Orleans]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bhughes.html Catholic-Hierarchy]