NEW ORLEANS (LA)
Times-Picayune [New Orleans LA]
September 24, 2025
By Stephanie Riegel
The Most Rev. Fr. James F. Checchio, bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen in New Jersey, has been named the next archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans by Pope Leo XIV, taking over from a retiring Archbishop Gregory Aymond.
A scholar of church law and the former leader of the American seminary in Rome, Checchio, 59, will serve alongside Aymond as coadjutor archbishop before taking the reins of the nation’s second-oldest Roman Catholic diocese in coming months, the Vatican announced on Wednesday.
His appointment comes 10 months after Aymond, 75, reached the mandatory retirement age for bishops. Aymond is also close to wrapping up the local church’s long-running bankruptcy case, and he affirmed in a letter Wednesday that he plans to conclude that process before passing responsibility for the region’s half-million Catholics to his successor.
A New Jersey native, Checchio was ordained in Camden in 1992 and will bring extensive credentials and experience to his new post.
In addition to his doctorate in Canon, or church, law, he holds an MBA as well as two undergraduate degrees. He served in several administrative positions in the Diocese of Camden early in his career and spent 12 years at the Vatican, including a decade running the Pontifical North American College in Rome – the city’s official seminary of the American Catholic church, before being named by Pope Francis as Bishop of Metuchen in 2016. When Aymond steps down completely, Checchio will inherit a diocese that has struggled since Hurricane Katrina with financial challenges brought by a shrinking population and, more recently, fallout from a clergy sex abuse crisis and a related bankruptcy case that is one of the costliest in the country.
Still, New Orleans remains a deeply Catholic city with religion intertwined into its culture. Some neighborhoods have vibrant parishes with rising mass attendance. Archbishops have remained prominent spiritual and civic leaders.
The Vatican posted the announcement of Checchio’s appointment on its website at 5 a.m., or noon in Rome.
The archdiocese has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m.
Young bishop, lengthy resume
Checchio will be the 15th archbishop to lead the Archdiocese of New Orleans since it was formed in 1794. Though he met and worked with thousands of American clergy in his years at the Vatican, he has no known ties to New Orleans or Louisiana.
He takes over a diocese that is similar in size to that of the Diocese of Metuchen, a middle-class and affluent community about 30 miles south of New York City. The Archdiocese of New Orleans has roughly 500,000 faithful and 104 parishes. The Diocese of Metuchen has 650,000 Catholics and 90 parishes.
Checchio was born in Camden in 1966 and grew up in a nearby suburb in a family of four children. He attended Pope Paul VI High School, a private, co- ed Catholic high school, and received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Scranton.
After his ordination, Checchio spent several years as a parish priest in the Diocese of Camden before moving into administrative positions. He received his MBA from LaSalle University and his Doctorate of Canon Law and Bachelor of Sacred Theology degrees from University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome.
At 59, Checchio is one of the younger bishops in the U.S. In 2020, there were more than 440 bishops, one-third of whom were over age 75 but still serving.
His biography suggests that a background in church finances has proven instrumental in his career. He currently serves as treasurer of the powerful United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the national organization of Catholic bishops in the U.S. He also chairs the USCCB’s budget and finance committee and serves on its executive and membership committees.
Under Aymond, who became archbishop in 2009, the Archdiocese of New Orleans refinanced some $40 million in debt that had accrued under his predecessors. The archdiocese also began selling off various properties to raise money for the bankruptcy settlement.
In 2023, Aymond closed or consolidated 13 of the then 111 parishes across the archdiocese, citing poor financial performance, dwindling attendance at mass and other sacraments and shifting demographics in an aging and shrinking city.
Worship and ministry
Shortly after he was ordained as a bishop in 2016, Checchio visited all 90 parishes in the Diocese of Metuchen and met with community members and school children, according to his letters on the diocese website. In his years there, he was known to the active and high-profile role he played throughout the diocese and for getting out into the community.
In pastoral letters, Checchio has emphasized both traditional worship and Catholic Social teaching. He has encouraged the faithful of Metuchen to spend more time in prayer while also calling on them to welcome Hispanic immigrants into their community.
The motto he chose upon his ordination, which is customary for Roman Catholic bishops, is Reconciliamini Deo, a Latin phrase that means “Be reconciled with God,” which comes from a passage in the New Testament where St. Paul is writing to the Christians in Corinth.
“Please join me in the ministry of evangelization,” he wrote in early 2017 in his first apostolic letter to the faithful. “Together we will serve as ambassadors for Christ! You and I are privileged to be called to carry on the very work of Jesus, reconciling the world to the Father.”
Email Stephanie Riegel at stephanie.riegel@theadvocate.com.