Pope Accepts Resignation of Auxiliary Bishop Sansaricq of Brooklyn

WASHINGTON (October 6, 2010) —Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation from office of Bishop Guy Sansaricq, until now auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, New York, due to age limits.

Guy A. Sansaricq was born October 6, 1934, in Jeremie, Haiti. He studied for the priesthood at the diocesan seminary of the Jeremie Diocese and at St. Paul’s Pontifical Semirary in Ottawa, Canada. He was ordained a priest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, in 1960.

After serving as chaplain for Haitians in the Bahamas, where he became especially aware of the plight of immigrants, Father Sansaricq studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, where he received a master's degree in l971. That same year he was accepted into the Diocese of Brooklyn and was assigned to Sacred Heart Parish in Brooklyn, where he served for 22 years. During that time he was also appointed diocesan coordinator of the Haitian Apostolate. In l987, he was selected by the U.S. Catholic bishops to head the National Haitian Apostolate.

In l993, he was named pastor of St. Jerome's Church in Brooklyn. He was named a Prelate of Honor by Pope John Paul II in l999, and appointed auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn on June 6, 2006.

Bishop Sansaricq is the only Haitian-American bishop in the United States.

The Diocese of Brooklyn comprises the Kings and Queens Counties in the State of New York, and extends over 179 Square Miles. It has a total population of4,787,708, of whom 1,436,312 are Catholic.