A 35-year veteran priest who has climbed the leadership ladder of Vermont’s Roman Catholic Diocese is set to become its new bishop.
Monsignor John McDermott, who has served as second-in-command to several previous leaders, will become head of the state’s largest religious denomination in July, the Vatican said in a statement Monday.
McDermott will succeed former Bishop Christopher Coyne, who oversaw the Green Mountain State from 2015 until his appointment as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, last fall.
McDermott, 61, was born and raised in New Jersey before attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and earning a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from North Carolina’s Belmont Abbey College and a master’s degree in divinity and theology from Maryland’s Mount St. Mary’s Seminary.
McDermott was ordained as a priest in 1989 by the late Vermont Catholic Bishop John Marshall and worked in Bridport, Burlington, Cambridge, Middlebury, Montpelier and Underhill before becoming the diocese’s vice-chancellor in 2004, chancellor in 2005 and vicar general in 2009.
McDermott is expected to become the diocese’s 11th leader at an ordination and installation Mass on July 15 at Burlington’s Saint Joseph Cathedral.
In his time, McDermott has seen Catholic participation in New England and the nation plummet to historic lows, with the number of Vermont faithful down by 32,000 in the past quarter-century to 110,000, according to church figures.
When Louis deGoesbriand became the first Vermont Catholic bishop upon the state diocese’s founding in 1853, he led a clergy of five members. That figure rose over time to 274 in 1975, only to drop to 36 active priests, 44 deacons and 15 religious ministers today, according to the church.
The Vermont diocese has circumvented the declines by asking parishes to consolidate or close (from 130 in 2001 to 68 today), adjust Mass schedules, share pastors, or welcome priests from other countries.