New Auxiliary for Newark Was a Salesian

New Auxiliary for Newark 
Was a Salesian

(Archdiocese of Newark)

On Feb. 27, the Holy See announced the appointment of 3 new auxiliary bishops for the archdiocese of Newark.  One of them, Bishop-elect Elias Lorenzo, OSB, began his religious life as a Salesian of Don Bosco, and Don Bosco’s Salesian Family are duly proud of him.

Born in Brooklyn in 1960, he was baptized Richard, entered the Salesians as a candidate at Don Bosco College Seminary in Newton, N.J., in 1978, and made his novitiate year in 1979-1980.  He professed temporary vows as a Salesian on Sept. 1, 1980.

Over the following 3 years, while earning his Bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Don Bosco College, with the guidance of his superiors he gradually discerned a calling to monastic life.  With the assistance of the provincial, Fr. Dominic DeBlase, when his Salesian temporary vows expired in 1983, he entered the Benedictines at St. Mary’s Abbey in Morristown, taking the monastic name Bro. Elias.  He professed vows as a Benedictine in 1985 and was ordained at the abbey in 1989 by Bp. Frank Rodimer of Paterson. 

Fr. Elias assumed various responsibilities in the abbey and its Delbarton School, and also did additional studies in liturgy, counseling, and canon law.  He was prior of the abbey for a dozen years, served as procurator general of Benedictine Order in Rome, and in 2016 was elected abbot president of the American Cassinese Congregation, an association of 25 Benedictine monasteries with 650 monks present in six countries.

Read more: https://www.rcan.org/three-auxiliary-bishops-named-archdiocese-newark

https://www.saintmarysabbey.org/news/fr-elias-lorenzo-elected-abbot-president