| The Most Reverend Alfred Clifton Hughes |
|
|---|---|
| Archbishop Emeritus of New Orleans | |
Archbishop Hughes greets parishioners in front of St. Louis Cathedral after the first services in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina more than a month earlier. |
|
| See | New Orleans |
| Enthroned | January 3, 2002 |
| Reign ended | June 12, 2009 |
| Predecessor | Francis Bible Schulte |
| Successor | Gregory Michael Aymond |
| Other posts | Auxiliary Bishop of Boston (1981-1993) Titular Bishop of Maximiana in Byzacena (1981-1993) Bishop of Baton Rouge (1993-2002) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | December 15, 1957 |
| Consecration | September 14, 1981 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 2, 1932 West Roxbury, Massachusetts |
| Alma mater | St. John's Seminary College |
| Styles of Alfred Hughes |
|
|---|---|
| Reference style | The Most Reverend |
| Spoken style | Your Excellency |
| Religious style | Bishop |
Alfred Clifton Hughes (born December 2, 1932) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the 13th Archbishop of New Orleans, having previously served as Bishop of Baton Rouge from 1993 to 2002. On June 12, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Gregory M. Aymond as the new Archbishop of New Orleans to replace Archbishop Hughes.
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Alfred Hughes was born in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, as the third of the four children of Alfred and Ellen (née Hennessey) Hughes; he has two older sisters, Dorothy Callahan and Marie Morgan, and a younger brother, a Jesuit priest named Kenneth. Hughes studied at St. John’s Seminary College, from where he received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1954, and then furthered his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University until 1958.
He was ordained to the priesthood in Rome on December 15, 1957, and then did pastoral work before returning to the Gregorian to obtain a doctorate in spiritual theology from 1959 to 1961. Upon his return to the United States, he became a professor, as well as spiritual director and lecturer, at his alma mater of St. John’s Seminary in 1962.
On July 21, 1981, Hughes was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Boston and Titular Bishop of Maximiana in Byzacena by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 14 from Humberto Cardinal Medeiros, with Bishops Thomas Daily and John D'Arcy serving as co-consecrators. Hughes served as Rector of St. John’s Seminary from 1981 to 1986, and as vicar general and vicar of administration from 1990 until 1993.
He was then named Bishop of Baton Rouge on September 7, 1993, and was installed as such on November 7 of that same year. On February 16, 2001, Hughes was made Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans, serving under Archbishop Francis Schulte. He visited ninety of the archdiocese’s 142 parishes when he arrived there to become more familiar with the people.
Hughes succeeded Schulte as Archbishop of New Orleans upon the latter’s retirement on January 3, 2002. His tenure has been marked by the devastating Hurricane Katrina in 2005, after which he made a televised appearance with Bishop Robert Muench (his successor in Baton Rouge), saying, “God has brought us to our knees in the face of disaster. We are so overwhelmed, we do not really know how to respond. Powerlessness leads us to prayer. And we know when we turn to God, God offers us his grace”.[1] In response to questioning religion during the hurricane’s aftermath, Hughes also said, “People can either turn inward on themselves and lose hope, or they turn upward to God and outward to other people. Our faith teaches us to do the latter, to really believe that God is present and is asking us to be partners with him in the recovery and restoration”.[2]
| Episcopal lineage | |
| Consecrated by: | Humberto Sousa Medeiros |
| Consecrator of | |
|---|---|
| Bishop | Date of consecration |
| Roger Paul Morin | February 11, 2003 |
| Ronald Paul Herzog | November 4, 2004 |
| Shelton Joseph Fabre | December 13, 2006 |
| Glen John Provost | April 23, 2007 |
| Michael Gerard Duca | May 19, 2008 |
On 2009 June 12 Hughes was, by designation of Pope Benedict XVI, succeeded by Gregory Michael Aymond, the Bishop of Austin, Texas. Hughes continued to serve as apostolic administrator until 2009 August 20, the date of Aymond's installation mass in New Orleans' Saint Louis Cathedral.[9] In a three-page newspaper article on 2009 June 14, Bruce Nolan analyzed the challenges Hughes had faced during his archbishopric, calling it "the stormiest" in New Orleans' recent times.[10]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Stanley Joseph Ott |
Bishop of Baton Rouge 1993–2001 |
Succeeded by Robert William Muench |
| Preceded by Francis B. Schulte |
Archbishop of New Orleans 2002–2009 |
Succeeded by Gregory Aymond |