Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
The son of the late Bernard and Helen Clark Hebda, the Most Reverend Bernard Anthony Hebda was born on September 3, 1959, in Pittsburgh, PA. Bernard Hebda attended Resurrection Elementary School in Brookline, PA, and then graduated from South Hills Catholic High School in Pittsburgh in 1977. He continued his education at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1980 followed by a juris doctor degree from the Columbia University School of Law in 1983. He was admitted to the Bar of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1983 and worked in Pittsburgh as an associate in the law firm of Reed, Smith, Shaw and McClay. In 1984, he enrolled at St. Paul Seminary in Pittsburgh and pursued the required studies in philosophy at Duquesne University before being sent to the North American College in Rome in 1985 where he completed his theological studies and earned his S.T.B. from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1988. He was ordained a deacon on April 6, 1989, at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and was ordained to the priesthood on July 1, 1989, in St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh. After his ordination, he served briefly as Parochial Vicar at Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Elwood City, PA, before returning to Rome to complete his licentiate in canon law, which he received in 1990 from the Pontifical Gregorian University. Upon returning to Pittsburgh, Fr. Hebda first served as his bishop’s secretary and master of ceremonies, and as a judge in the Diocesan tribunal. He then served in team ministry at Prince of Peace on Pittsburgh’s South Side before being named director of campus ministry at the Slippery Rock University Newman Center. In 1996, he was appointed to work at the Vatican in the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, which was responsible for the interpretation of the Church’s laws, especially the Code of Canon Law. In 2003, St. John Paul II named him Undersecretary of the Council. While in Rome, he also served as an adjunct spiritual director at the North American College and as a confessor for the postulants of the Missionaries of Charity (founded by Saint Teresa of Kolkata) and for the Sisters of that community working at a home for unwed mothers. He was named Fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Gaylord in Michigan on October 7, 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI. His Episcopal ordination took place on December 1, 2009. On September 24, 2013, Pope Francis named Bishop Hebda Coadjutor Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark. While serving in Newark, Archbishop Hebda lived in a dormitory at Seton Hall University and renewed his interest in campus ministry. On June 15, 2015, Pope Francis named him Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, in addition to his responsibilities in Newark. On March 24, 2016, Pope Francis named him Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. He was installed on May 13, 2016, in the Cathedral of Saint Paul.