Arthur J Serratelli

Early life

Serratelli was born in Newark, New Jersey, and attended Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in the Ironbound section of Newark. He graduated from Seton Hall Preparatory School in 1961. He attended Seton Hall University for two years, then moved to the Darlington section of Mahwah, New Jersey, to attend the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. After two years of philosophy studies, Serratelli continued his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, residing at the Pontifical North American College.

Priestly ministry

Ordained for the Archdiocese of Newark in 1968, Serratelli worked in a parish for a short period of time and then taught at the seminary. He then returned to Rome and earned his S.T.D. and S.S.L. degrees.

Serratelli returned to the Archdiocese of Newark and taught scripture at Seton Hall University School of Theology for over 20 years. He also held other positions during this time, including rector of the College division of the Immaculate Conception Seminary at St. Andrew's Hall. Pope John Paul II named him a Prelate of Honor in 1998.

While serving in the Archdiocese of Newark, he was a member of the following Archdiocesan consultative bodies:

Episcopal ministry

On July 3, 2000, Pope John Paul II named Serratelli an Auxiliary Bishop of Newark with the titular see of Enera. He was consecrated a bishop on September 8, 2000, by Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, with co-consecrating bishops Michael Angelo Saltarelli and Paul Gregory Bootkoski. After his consecration, Serratelli was appointed the vicar for Essex County. When McCarrick was transferred to the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. and John J. Myers, formerly Bishop of Peoria, Illinois became the new Archbishop of Newark, Serratelli was appointed the Archdiocesan Vicar General.

On June 1, 2004, Pope John Paul II accepted the retirement of Frank J. Rodimer as Bishop of Paterson and appointed Serratelli as his successor. Serratelli was installed on July 6 of that year.

As a member of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Serratelli as of 2012 was Chairman of the Committee on Doctrine's Subcommittee for the Review of Scripture Translations, and a member of the Committee on Divine Worship and its Task Groups on Liturgy with Children, and the Review of the Lectionary.

Previously, Serratelli served as the Chairman of the Committee on Liturgy (later the Committee on Divine Worship) from 2007 to 2010, and was responsible for announcing the acceptance by the Vatican of changes to the English translation of the Roman Missal, to be implemented throughout the Roman Catholic Church in English-speaking countries on November 27, 2011, the First Sunday of Advent. He was also a member of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Review of the Catechism (later the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis), the Ad Hoc Committee for the Spanish Bible for the Church in America, the Board of Bishops for the American College of Louvain (which closed at the end of the 2010-2011 academic year), and the Committee for Women in the Church and Society (known presently as the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth).

He is a member of:

He is the chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, and the Catholic co-chairperson, together with the Baptist theologian Paul Fiddes, of the International Theological Consultation between Catholics and Baptists.

Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on October 28, 2016.

Bishop Serratelli's Coat of Arms was prepared by the Matthew R. Mauriello of Bridgeport, Connecticut, complete with imagery from his Italian heritage, his identity as a priest of the Archdiocese of Newark, his studies in Scripture and his honoring both Pope John Paul II and Archbishop McCarrick.