Bishop names Msgr. Harrington rector of St. Joseph Co-Cathedral
As of this year, Brooklyn’s Catholic community has two cathedrals – the traditional seat of the bishop. Saint James, in downtown Brooklyn, has been a cathedral since the founding of the Brooklyn Diocese in 1853. But in February, in one of his last acts as pope, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI elevated Saint Joseph’s Church in Prospect Heights to the status of co-cathedral alongside St. James.
Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who had appointed the Rev. Msgr. Kieran Harrington, the diocese’s vicar of communications, to serve as the administrator of the St. Joseph five years ago, recently promoted him to be the rector. The bishop presided over a mass at St. Joseph on Sept. 15 to officially install Msgr. Harrington as the rector.
A rector is a religious leader who stands in as the representative of the bishop at a co-cathedral. The bishop is technically the pastor of a cathedral.
“I appointed Monsignor Harrington five years ago as administrator of St. Joseph’s. During that time, he worked with many different people to make sure the infrastructure of the church was upgraded, but as we all know, a church is not just brick and mortar. A church is about its people. And over the past five years, the parish has become vibrant and grown in no small part to Monsignor Harrington and his collaborators,” Bishop DiMarzio said.