Frank Caggiano
Frank Joseph Caggiano is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as the Bishop of Bridgeport since his appointment in 2013. Prior to his appointment to the Bridgeport diocese, Caggiano was an Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Brooklyn.
Biography
Early life
Frank Caggiano was born on Easter Sunday in 1959 in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn, New York, the younger of two children of Arnaldo and Gennarina Caggiano. His parents were Italian immigrants who came to the United States from the town of Caggiano, in the province of Salerno, in 1958. He has an older sister, Antonia. His parents originally wanted to name him Francesco after his grandfather, however, a nurse mistakenly placed Frank on birth forms which his parents reluctantly accepted.Caggiano grew up in southern Brooklyn on Van Sicklen Street and would attend Mass each Sunday morning at their parish of Saints Simon and Jude where he would eventually attend school. He attended Saints Simon and Jude Elementary School in Gravesend and graduated from Regis High School in Manhattan in 1977. He then entered Yale University as a political science major, but later decided to enter the priesthood. This sudden shift from Yale to the priesthood disappointed his father who opposed his priestly inclinations, even though Caggiano himself was still unsure of his vocation. In 1978, he entered Cathedral College in Douglaston, from where Caggiano obtained a B.A. in philosophy in 1981.
Upon graduating from Cathedral College, Caggiano worked in the New York metropolitan area for the Gregg Division of McGraw Hill Publishing Company for eighteen months. He then went on to attend the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington and earned a M.Div..
Priesthood
Caggiano was ordained a priest by Bishop Francis Mugavero on May 16, 1987 in Douglaston, and then served as associate pastor at Saint Agatha Church in Bay Ridge and at Saint Athanasius Church in Bensonhurst until August 1991. After serving in ministry for a few years, Caggiano studied in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, earning a Doctor of Sacred Theology in May 1996: His thesis was entitled: The Eschatological Implications of the Notion of Recreation in the Works of St. Cyril of Alexandria. While in Rome, Caggiano was assigned to the North American College while he pursued his studies at the Gregorian.He returned to the Diocese of Brooklyn after studying in Rome and became associate pastor of Saint Jude Church in Canarsie in June 1996, also serving as Dean of Formation for the Permanent Diaconate Program and Censor Librorum for the Diocese. He became the pastor of Saint Dominic's Church in Bensonhurst in 1998 and taught theology at Saint John's University's Staten Island campus and at Saint Joseph's College. He also preached at the Youth 2000 Summer Festival in Tipperary, Ireland. He was named director of the Permanent Diaconate Office in 2002 and later Vicar for Evangelization and Pastoral Life in 2004.
He was raised to the rank of Papal Chaplain by Pope John Paul II in 2003. In 2004, Bishop Nicholas Anthony DiMarzio appointed him as the diocesan Vicar for Evangelization and Pastoral Life, which also came with directing several offices under that responsibility.
Episcopal career
Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn
On June 6, 2006, Caggiano was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Brooklyn and Titular Bishop of Inis Cathaig by Pope Benedict XVI. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 22 from Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, with Bishops Thomas Daily and Ignatius Catanello serving as co-consecrators. Caggiano has participated in a number of World Youth Day gatherings, delivering catechetical talks in Sydney, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.In 2009, the Brooklyn diocese made the decision to close fourteen schools down; Caggiano was selected by Bishop DiMarzio to lead the reorganization effort and conceded that prior school closings generally led to job losses and that the current reorganization efforts would more than likely result in job losses for some people. He also was put in charge of consolidating 46 parishes and reducing the Catholic grade schools from 108 to about 65 or 70 while converting the rest into independent Catholic academies.
Bishop of Bridgeport
On July 31, 2013, Pope Francis appointed Caggiano the Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and he was installed there on September 19.One of his first actions was to publicly announce the financial deficit incurred before his installation, and to mandate that pastors would serve six-year renewable periods at parishes and would be required to submit their resignations when they turned 75, much like bishops did.
In 2014, he convoked the 4th Synod of the Diocese of Bridgeport, the first in 32 years. In an interview with America, Caggiano said that one of his first priorities as bishop is reaching out to the high percentage of Catholics in the diocese, who for whatever reasons, no longer attend Mass. One of the major concerns that the synod focused on was the decline in Mass attendance and sacramental reception as well as the need to bolster Catholic schools due to declining enrollment.
In April 2019, Fairfield University's Murphy Center awarded Bishop Caggiano the "Bowler Award" in recognition of his pastoral contributions to the Diocese of Bridgeport. In November 2019, Caggiano was elected to the board of Catholic Relief Services and then named to a three-year term as its chairman. Of that appointment, Caggiano said in a statement issued on November 25 that it was an honor for him to lead an organization dedicated to people "who don't have enough to eat or a place to sleep because of entrenched poverty".
In 2018, Caggiano announced that liturgical norms and regulations in the diocese would be revised over the next four-year period as a result of discussions from the diocesan synod. Caggiano said, on October 1, that these newer regulations would "allow us to pray effectively and reverently as a Church" and would be the newest norms implemented since 1983.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Caggiano issued directives to cease public Masses on a temporary basis and would go on to livestream his Masses for people to virtually participate in. Caggiano reasoned that closing churches was per "our common moral obligation to protect human life" and reduce transmission in the virus. Additionally, he noted in a Facebook post that suspending all public Masses was important for community safety, and was in accordance to "the central Catholic belief in the sanctity of every human life". However, the diocese also announced that one particular format for the Mass in person would be arranged to social distancing norms for only 50 people while others can participate via their car in parking lots, still socially distant in the case of an emergency. Caggiano later announced an easing in restrictions on Mass attendance based on a reopening process in conjunction with steps taken by neighbouring dioceses.
In order to evangelize on a broader level, Caggiano maintains a Facebook and Twitter account where he publishes small reflections updated regularly.
Sexual abuse reporting
Caggiano commissioned a report released in October 2019 from former state Superior Court Judge Robert Holzberg into the Diocese's handling of accusations of sexual abuse by its priests. Holzberg found that since 1953 some 71 priests had abused almost 300 people, with most cases dating to the 1960s and 1970s and none since 2008. He detailed how three bishops over forty years had consistently failed to fulfill their moral and legal responsibilities. Caggiano also said on October 3, 2019 that victims "need to remain at the center of all of our efforts because they are our brothers and sisers" which meant that "moving forward does not mean leaving them behind".Views and theology
Abortion
Caggiano opposes abortion, believing that countless more unborn children will be robbed of their God-given right to enjoy the gift of life". Caggiano released a reflection on January 25, 2019 in which he referred to the legalization of abortion as disturbing and as a failure on the part of contemporary American society. In June 1997, he gave an address where he said that life must be preserved and defended from the moment of conception since an unborn child was "of infinite value" due to its origins in God's love.Euthanasia
In June 1997, the then-Father Caggiano gave an address in which he lamented that "contemporary society continues to undermine all attempts to respect and defend human life", referring to an imminent Supreme Court ruling on physician-assisted suicide which Caggiano said "represents a subtle form of euthanasia". He elaborated that refusing to contribute to the defence of human life only contributed to a "culture of death" that would usher in dramatic societal shifts towards life and death.Same-sex marriage
Caggiano opposes same-sex marriage and in 2015 issued a statement lamenting the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision that same-sex marriages were nationally constitutional. Caggiano joined other Catholic dioceses in opposing the ruling, reflecting that the decision was indicative of "rapidly shifting attitudes in our secular American society", however, pointing out that this did not deter the Church's official magisterium or "its understanding of sacramental marriage".The bishop further stated that "the Church clearly teaches that the sacrament of marriage is a covenant of love that can be entered into only by a man and a woman", and that a change in civil law was only proof that the Church needed to continue to make the effort "to become a more welcoming Church".
Youth
Bishop Caggiano was one of the delegates appointed to attend the Synod of Bishops in 2018 dedicated to the youth. Caggiano said that the Church needed to act transparently in order to secure trust on the part of young people left scandalized by scandals. He further said that there was a need to make outreach to young people a crucial pastoral focus for any episcopacy.In an interview given to the National Catholic Register on July 10, 2017, Caggiano said that young people "are facing their own unique challenges and want someone to listen to them", therefore necessitating the need for pastors to be able to respond to them through modern technological innovations that can draw them closer to young people and the youth to the Church. Caggiano further said that striving for personal holiness and to "proclaim the Good News" were focal points for a youth ministry so that the youth were not forgotten.
Having attended several World Youth Day events, Caggiano strongly believes that those events can become "a life-changing experience" for young people to encounter Jesus Christ. He said that it was exceptional to see millions of young people gathering together from all parts of the world under a common faith.
Interfaith dialogue
Caggiano supports interreligious dialogue as a call for peace. On December 22, 2015, Caggiano attended a prayer service with Jewish and Muslim leaders in front of the Margaret Morton Government Center "to alert people to the sin of discrimination and to stand in solidarity with those who are in need". He decried those attacks motivated by religious discrimination and hatred, noting the "growing menace of terrorism and violence" in a Facebook post he wrote shortly after the event.His comments also went indirectly towards terrorism motivated by religion when he also noted that "unfortunately there are few who, in the name of God, are perpetrating terrible acts of evil". Caggiano pointed out that different religions needed to come together to reject religiously-motivated violence in order "to search for peace, understanding and a spirit of tolerance".
The bishop also condemned the spraying of anti-Semitic graffiti at the diocesan cathedral, referring to "this brazen and disgusting display of anti-Semitism which is morally abhorrent and an affront to our Catholic faith" in a statement issued on January 5, 2019. He further said that "to use a clearly anti-Semitic symbol is participating in unspeakable evil" and that it was a distressing occurrence given that there was a growing need to mutually respect other religions.