Las Vegas’ new Catholic leader takes reins today

Stacy J. Willis

Thursday, May 31, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

Bishop-elect Joseph Pepe has a box in his hands -- fairly large, perhaps books -- and he's standing outside the Las Vegas Catholic Diocese office facing the door.

Inside is a new job, an office he has yet to settle, and the reins to a 430,000-member Catholic community. Soon he will be the first bishop ever to be ordained in Nevada, and he will take charge of the fastest-growing diocese in the nation.

Across the parking lot workers are fiddling with a temporary awning, which has been erected along the short path from the diocese office to Guardian Angel Cathedral. At 2 p.m. today, Pepe was scheduled to follow a procession of cardinals and bishops from around the country, as well as some 160 priests and deacons, along this path and into the cathedral for his ordination.

"This is a long way for a boy from Philly, yes," he says.

Just as Pepe begins to struggle with the door and the box -- as he starts awkwardly shuffling the package and reaching for the handle -- a secretary flings open the office door and welcomes him. Pepe strides in.

"I'm overwhelmed, I'm excited, and I feel very blessed," he says.

Pope John Paul II reassigned Pepe from his most recent post in Santa Fe to the Las Vegas Diocese in April.

But at 58, this is not where Bishop-elect Joseph Pepe envisioned himself ending up.

"I was planning on going back to Philly and becoming a parish priest," Pepe says. "Being a bishop never came to my mind. Never."

A lifelong Catholic and the son of a construction worker, Pepe decided he wanted to be a priest when he was 6 years old. "I would stand in my living room and preach. Priests were the heroes in my neighborhood. That's what I wanted to do."

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

His career emphasis has been on marriage counseling and canon law, as well as vocation training. He plans to focus on priest recruitment here in Las Vegas. Today 24 active priests belong to the diocese,and another 55 are on loan intermittently from other dioceses and religious orders.

Although Pepe was serving the archdiocese of Santa Fe as chancellor before his reassignment, he says he has never had a leadership position as daunting as being the bishop of Las Vegas.

"I have a lot of learning to do, a lot of listening to do," he says. "But I have a willingness to serve this community. My motto is 'I come as the one who serves,' " he says.

In preparation, he's been chatting with former Las Vegas Bishop Daniel Walsh, asking for tips. He has been meeting with priests and teachers in the community, and, he says, he has been praying.

Bishop Joseph Galante of Dallas, a friend of Pepe's for 25 years since they met in Philadelphia, is here to watch the ordination.

"With him (Pepe), what you see is what you get," Galante said. "I am delighted for him and for Nevada. He is a man of great love for people and great warmth and deep spirituality."

Two cardinals -- Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Archbishop of Philadelphia, and Cardinal Roger Mahoney, Archbishop of Los Angeles, are scheduled to attend the ordination, along with local community leaders including Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Tickets to the ordination were distributed through parishes because seating is limited. The ceremony was expected to last three hours.

The event will mark the first time the diocese has ordained a bishop because Walsh was already a bishop when he was assigned to the new Las Vegas Diocese in 1991.

Walsh was reassigned to the diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., last May. Monsignor Patrick Leary has served as administrator of the diocese during the interim.