Audio: Christmas Midnight Mass

Bishop Robert Morlino

Robert Morlino was born December 31, 1946, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. An only child, his father, Charles, died while he was in high school, his mother, Albertina, in 1980. He was raised in northeastern Pennsylvania, graduating from Jesuit High School in Scranton.

He entered the seminary for the Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, and was ordained to the priesthood for that Jesuit Province on June 1, 1974.

His education includes a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Fordham University, a master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, the Master of Divinity Degree from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Mass., and a doctorate in Moral Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, with specialization in moral theology and bioethics.

Father Morlino taught Philosophy at Loyola College in Baltimore, St. Joseph University in Philadelphia, Boston College, the University of Notre Dame and St. Mary’s College. He served as an instructor in continuing education for priests, religious and laity and as director of parish renewal programs.

In 1981, Father Morlino became a priest of the Diocese of Kalamazoo and served there as Vicar for Spiritual Development, Executive Assistant and Theological Consultant to the Bishop, as Moderator of the Curia, and as the Promoter of Justice in the Diocesan Tribunal. He served as administrator of a number of parishes, and as rector of St. Augustine Cathedral in Kalamazoo.

Father Morlino was scheduled to begin a full-time faculty appointment as professor of theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit when, on July 6, 1999, Pope John Paul II appointed him the Ninth Bishop of Helena.

Bishop Morlino was appointed the Fourth Bishop of Madison on May 23, 2003. He was installed on August 1, 2003.

Bishop Morlino currently serves as chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

He is past chairman of two committees within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. From 2001 to 2004, he chaired the Bishops’ Committee on the Diaconate, which deals with matters concerning the ministry of permanent deacons in the Church in the United States, and, from 2001 to 2004, he also chaired the Ad Hoc Committee on Health Care Issues and the Church, which assists the bishops in responding to moral and theological questions surrounding specific health care situations in their dioceses.