New bishop for Las Vegas announced

Stacy J. Willis

Friday, April 6, 2001 | 11:13 a.m.

Pope John Paul II announced a new bishop for the Diocese of Las Vegas today, filling a position that has been vacant for nearly one year.

Msgr. Joseph A. Pepe, 58, will be installed as the second bishop of the diocese on May 31. Pepe has been serving as chancellor and vicar for the clergy in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, N.M., since 1993.

The Diocese of Las Vegas, which is the fastest growing in the United States, has been without a bishop since Bishop Daniel F. Walsh was re-assigned to the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., in May. Interim leadership duties have been assumed by Msgr. Patrick O'Leary.

"This is very important to the diocese, and we are very excited about his arrival," the Rev. Bede Wevita, director of public affairs for the Las Vegas Diocese, said. "We are all very anxious to meet him."

Pepe arrived in Las Vegas Thursday night and appeared at a news conference today at the diocese office.

During his tour of his office this morning, Pepe said he's up to the challenge to leading the rapidly growing diocese.

"I'm looking forward to being a shepherd for this community as it matures," he said.

Pepe said the demographics of the Santa Fe and Las Vegas dioceses are similar, with an emphasis on a growing Hispanic population.

During his service in Santa Fe, Pepe specialized in working with couples who had troubled marriages. "I want to continue to emphasis the importance of family here."

From their offices in New Mexico, Santa Fe Archdiocese officials called Pepe "an outstanding spiritual leader." "We are very saddened to see him leave Santa Fe," Celine Radigan, spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, said. "But we know the people of Las Vegas are going to be very happy to have him."

Pepe attended high school in Philadelphia, and graduated from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia in 1970 with a Master of Divinity. He was ordained a priest in 1970. He completed advanced degrees in Canon Law at the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome in 1976.

Pepe served as vice chancellor of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia from 1986-1989 and as chancellor of that diocese from 1989 to 1992.

"He has excellent pastoral qualities as well as the administrative experience and sensitivity so needed to be a good bishop today," Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan said.

The Diocese of Las Vegas was established in 1995 and covers a Roman Catholic population of more than 430,000 in Southern Nevada, sharing the state with the Diocese of Reno. The Diocese of Las Vegas 24 parishes.