Church Roman Catholicism Predecessor Anthony G. Bosco Name Lawrence Brandt | Successor incumbent See Greensburg Ordination December 12, 1969 | |
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In office March 4, 2004 – April 24, 2015 Born March 27, 1939 (age 84)
Charleston, West Virginia ( 1939-03-27 ) Education Pontifical College Josephinum, Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, Pontifical North American College | ||
Lawrence Eugene Brandt (born March 27, 1939) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fourth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg in Pennsylvania until April 24, 2015.
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Biography
Lawrence Brandt was born in Charleston, West Virginia; he has two sisters. He would pretend to celebrate the Mass as a child, using a small workbench as an altar, Necco Wafers as hosts, and one of his father’s architectural manuals as the lectionary. The family later moved to Pennsylvania, where Brandt attended St. John the Evangelist School in Girard. He then studied at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio.
Brandt studied in Austria at the University of Innsbruck, obtaining his doctorate in philosophy in 1966. He also completed his theological studies at the Pontifical North American College and Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on December 19, 1969, in St. Peter's Basilica.
Brandt then attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, and served in the nunciatures to Madagascar, Germany, Ecuador, and Algeria from 1973 to 1981, when he left the Vatican's diplomatic service for family reasons. Upon his return to the United States, Brandt was incardinated into the Diocese of Erie, where he served as vice-chancellor and chaplain of Gannondale Residential Center for Girls before returning to Rome to obtain his doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1983 which was audited by Tarcisio Bertone, SDB. A graduate of the Universities of Paris and of Florence as well, he was named Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1991 and pastor of St. Hedwig Church in Erie in 1998.
Appointed Bishop
On January 2, 2004, Brandt was appointed the fourth Bishop of Greensburg by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following March 4 from Justin Cardinal Rigali, with Bishops Anthony Bosco and Donald Trautman (his former classmate at the University of Innsbruck) serving as co-consecrators.
The Bishop enjoys exercising at the local YMCA in Erie, once joking that, "Seeing other people in equal pain is a great support.".
Controversy
According to a report in the National Catholic Reporter in April 2010, Bishop Brandt has prohibited a religious order of sisters from advertising for vocations in the Greensburg diocese's newspaper and other publications. He objects to the fact that the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, Pennsylvania have joined other religious orders in supporting the recently passed Affordable Care Act, which the U.S. bishops opposed. The religious orders held that the legislation and related Executive Order provide sufficient guarantees that no federal funding will be made available for elective abortions under the new act.