The Most Reverend Josu Iriondo, (80) formerly a Canon Regular of the Most Holy Savior of the Lateran, later incarnated as a priest of the Archdiocese of New York and retired Auxiliary Bishop of New York was appointed to be a bishop on October 30, 2001 and ordained the Titular Bishop of Alton and Auxiliary of NY on December 12, 2001 while the city was still reeling from the horrible terrorist attacks of 9/11. In his assumed coat of arms Bishop Iriondo decided to commemorate those horrible events and the faith that helped many cope with them by incorporating an image from Ground Zero into his coat of arms. There was a cross made of the remnant I-beams of one of the fallen towers that rescue workers erected over the site. That cross of steel I-beams was used as the image of the cross making up the principal charge of the bishop’s coat of arms.

artwork by Deacon Paul Sullivan

On August 8, Rev. Douglas Lucia (56) a priest of Ogdensburg, NY was ordained a bishop and installed as the 11th Bishop of Syracuse, NY. His coat of arms:

On Wednesday, August 21, the feast of St. Pius X, the Most Rev. Mark E. Brennan (72) until recently Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore and Titular Bishop of Rusibisir, was installed as the 9th Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia. He succeeds the scandal ridden Bishop Michael Bransfield.

His coat of arms (above) is clearly a redesign of the coat of arms he assumed at the time he became a bishop. Normally, I am very critical of the practice of a bishop changing his coat of arms when transferring to a different assignment. A coat of arms is not “changeable” as it is a mark of personal identification.

However, Bishop Brennan’s originally assumed arms (below) were rather busy and it would have been difficult to impale them well with the diocesan coat of arms. Of course, it is well worth pointing out that while impalement, symbolizing that the bishop is “married” to his diocese, is the norm for diocesan bishops in the United States but it is not mandatory by any means. I would hazard a guess that when Bishop Brennan assumed his coat of arms he did not think that he would ever be called upon to serve as a diocesan bishop and thought his episcopal ministry would be lived out as an Auxiliary of Baltimore. That’s not an unusual assumption when you consider he was already 69 years old when he was appointed a bishop and the mandatory age at which bishops must submit a resignation is 75!

Nevertheless, his personal coat of arms has been redesigned to better harmonize and more easily be impaled with the coat of arms of the See of Wheeling-Charleston. In my opinion, my misgivings about redesigning arms aside, I think it is an improvement over the original coat of arms. The change of the motto, also not an absolutely necessary part of a coat of arms although erroneously thought to be so by many, is less problematic.

On July 25, 2019 the Most Rev. John Wilson (51), a priest and auxiliary bishop of Westminster was installed as the 11th Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark. London is a unique city in that it contains two different ARCHdioceses, as well as also containing part of the territory of two dioceses. Everything south of the river Thames is in the Archdiocese of Southwark.

The archbishop employs the archdiocesan arms pictured below. They follow the more ancient custom in Britain of ensigning the shield with a bishop’s mitre rather than the more continental galero.

On July 26, 2019 the Most Rev. Robert Gruss (64), formerly Bishop of Rapid City, SD and prior to that a priest of Davenport, IA was installed as the seventh Bishop of Saginaw, MI. His coat of arms (below) is described on the diocesan website.

Bishop Joseph A. Galante, D.D., J.C.D. was born in Philadelphia and was ordained in 1964. He attended Lateran University in Rome, where he received his doctorate in canon law, and later the University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome, where he received his Master’s Degree in Spiritual Theology.

He served in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia until he was named by Pope John Paul II in December 1986 to be Undersecretary of the Congregation for Religious in Rome. He was a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Communications.

In October 1992 he was named Auxiliary Bishop of San Antonio, Texas. A year and a half later he was installed as Bishop of Beaumont, Texas. He became Coadjutor Bishop of Dallas in January 2000.

On April 30, 2004, Bishop Galante was installed as seventh bishop of the Diocese of Camden.

Bishop Galante retired on January 8, 2013. He entered into eternal life on May 25, 2019.

The Most Rev. Donald Hying (55), formerly a priest and auxiliary bishop of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and since 2014 the bishop of Gary, Indiana has been appointed the fifth Bishop of Madison, Wisconsin succeeding the late Robert Morlino. Bishop Hying will be installed in Madison on June 25, 2019.

On Friday, March 29, 2019 the Most Rev. Robert Brennan, formerly Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre, NY was installed as the twelfth Bishop of Columbus, Ohio. His personal arms now impaled with those of the See are described on the diocesan website.

The Brennan coat of arms comprises a white shield with a blue heraldic lion, and two red hands in the top corners of the shield. Rather than use the original design Bishop Brennan has chosen to retain the overall coloration and layout of his family coat of arms, while employing charges more evocative of his own life of faith. 

The main charge on the shield is the Cross, the foundation of the Christian faith. The arms of this particular Cross resemble a fleur-de-lis, a stylized lily often used as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.  

At the bottom of the cross appears a small white star, a symbol of Our Lady. Its position recalls the moment of the Commendation, when, “standing by the cross of Jesus” (John 19:25), Mary became, at her Son’s command, the Mother of all of his disciples (cf. John 19:27). The star has seven points, recalling the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

At the center of the cross appears a lamb’s head painted gold. The same charge figures prominently on the coat of arms of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, which Bishop Brennan served as a priest and bishop for nearly 30 years. Saint Agnes is the patroness of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, and of its Cathedral church, where Bishop Brennan resided for 16 years. 

At the top of the shield are two scallop shells painted red. Although the charges are the same, they are used here to allude to two different saints: John the Baptist and James the Greater. Bishop Brennan attended Saint John the Baptist High School (West Islip) and Saint John’s University, and the patron of these schools is often depicted in sacred art using a shell to baptize the Lord Jesus. The date of Bishop Brennan’s ordination as a bishop — July 25, 2012 — is the feast of Saint James, the brother of Saint John the Evangelist and the first of the apostles to be martyred, during the persecution of the early Church (Acts 12:1-2). The red color of the shells recalls the fact that both of these saints gave their lives as martyrs for the faith.