Lawrence Eugene Brandt

Infobox bishopbiog


name = Lawrence Eugene Brandt
| religion=Roman Catholicism
See = Greensburg
Title = Bishop of Greensburg
Period = 2004 – present
Predecessor = Anthony Gerard Bosco
Successor = incumbent
ordination = 1969-12-19
bishops =
post =
date of birth = Birth date and age|1939|3|27
place of birth = Charleston, West Virginia

Lawrence Eugene Brandt (born March 27, 1939) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the fourth and current Bishop of Greensburg.

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 then traveled to Austria to study at the University of Innsbruck, from where he obtained 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 there ordained to the priesthood on December 19, 1969, in St. Peter's Basilica.Infobox bishopstyles
name=Lawrence Brandt
dipstyle=The Most Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Monsignor
deathstyle=noneBrandt then attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, and successively served in the nunciatures to Madagascar, Germany, Ecuador, and Algeria from 1973 to 1981, when he was forced to leave 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. 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 [http://www.sainthedwig.org/ St. Hedwig Church] in Erie in 1998.

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." [Diocese of Greensburg. [http://www.dioceseofgreensburg.org/DOGWeb/wsotft3.nsf/SubByKey/E44E654B6914709285256E510058DE48.html Biography of Bishop Brandt] ] .

References

External links

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bbrandt.html Catholic-Hierarchy]
* [http://www.dioceseofgreensburg.org/DOGWeb/wsotft3.nsf/SubByKey/E44E654B6914709285256E510058DE48.html Diocese of Greensburg]
* [http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2004/04-001.shtml USCCB Office of Media Relations]