Joseph Gregory Vath

Joseph Gregory Vath (born March 12, 1918 in New Orleans , Louisiana , † July 14, 1987 in Birmingham , Alabama ) was a Roman Catholic clergyman and from 1969 until his death in 1987 Bishop of Birmingham in the US state of Alabama.

Life

Joseph Gregory Vath was born on March 12, 1918 in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He was ordained a priest on June 7, 1941, at the age of 23, and was ordained a priest of Ascension Catholic Church in Donaldsonville , Louisiana. Here he worked from 1941 to 1946 and was then active as a Reverend in various other churches in Louisiana. A few days before his 48th birthday, he was appointed auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham on March 4, 1966 , and at the same time became the first titular bishop of Novaliciana . He then held the latter office from May 26, 1966, after receiving the ordination for it. After the 51-year-old was given by Pope Paul VI on September 29, 1969 . was appointed first bishop of Birmingham , he accordingly resigned from his other offices. The diocese of Birmingham itself was created on June 28, 1969 as a result of the division of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham and was subordinated to the Archdiocese of New Orleans as a suffragan .

After more than 18 years as Bishop of the Diocese of Birmingham, Alabama , Vath died on July 14, 1987 at the age of 69 of a heart attack in the University Hospital of the University of Alabama at Birmingham . His burial took place on the western forecourt of the at that time already listed Saint Paul's Cathedral in Birmingham .

Web links

• Entry on Joseph Gregory Vath on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved November 19, 2016.
• Joseph Gregory Vath in the database of Find a Grave (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Bishop of Birmingham 1969–1987	Raymond James Boland