Search
-
October 7, 2021CLEVELAND – Retired Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of Cleveland, who led initiatives to bring diverse communities together to overcome poverty, racism and social inequity, died Sept. 21 at age 88, the Diocese of Cleveland said.
Bishop Edward C. Malesic of Cleveland announced Bishop Pilla’s death in a statement, saying the native Clevelander died at his home. No cause of death was given.
A funeral Mass was celebrated by Bishop Malesic Sept. 28 at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Cleveland. Interment will be in the Resurrection Chapel in the cathedral.
Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered prayers and sympathy to Bishop Pilla’s family, friends and those touched by his years of ministry in the Cleveland Diocese.
Bishop Pilla took a leadership role with the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the forerunner to the USCCB, starting in 1981. He served on the bishops’ committees on Finance and Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and became chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Follow-up for the Pastoral on the Economy.
In 1990, he became the conference’s treasurer, its vice president in 1992 and its president in 1995. He also was a member of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church at the Vatican.
Born Nov. 12, 1932, to Italian parents, Bishop Pilla grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Cleveland. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1959. He served in parish ministry and joined the faculty of Borromeo Seminary in Cleveland in 1960. He was named rector of Borromeo in 1972 and appointed secretary for services and religious personnel of the diocese in 1975.
He became a bishop in 1979, when Saint John Paul II named him an auxiliary bishop of Cleveland. He was named the ninth bishop of Cleveland in November 1980 and was installed Jan. 6, 1981. He retired in 2006.
