Archdiocese of Cincinnati welcomes Archbishop-designate Robert Casey
CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Catholics across Greater Cincinnati will soon welcome a new Archbishop into their church.
A ceremony and mass to welcome Archbishop-designate Robert Casey to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati will be held at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains April 3 at 2 p.m.
Archbishop-designate Casey, 57, currently serves as an Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago, and is about to become the tenth Metropolitan Archbishop of Cincinnati.
He was in the Queen City earlier this year to introduce himself to Cincinnati, days after Pope Francis selected him to replace Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, who resigned in February.
“Since February 12th, I’ve been packing up my life in Chicago. Concluding my work there and coming down here,” Archbishop-designate Casey said. “So, it’s been a whirlwind of trying to tie up all of my loose ends after a lifetime in Chicago.”
Archbishop-designate Casey has been a priest for more than 30 years and was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1994. He was ordained a Bishop in 2018.
He stated that he will let his faith be his guide to encourage disenfranchised Catholics to return to mass.
“The movement is away from institutionalized religion. So all religions, whether you’re a Catholic or Jewish or Muslim, we have to find ways to engage in dialogue with our society and help our society see the gift and the grace of being part of an institutional religious experience,” Archbishop-designate Casey shared.
In 2021, former St. Ignatius priest Geoff Drew pleaded guilty for repeatedly raping an altar boy at St. Jude in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“That is a sad truth of our past that we have to reconcile with,” Archbishop-designate Casey said Wednesday.
“And so, how do we as a Church assist our society in creating safe environments, in creating policies towards safeguarding children, youth, vulnerable adults? Our Church has a very important role to play right now in this work,” he continued.
For those who may question the validity of a blessing bestowed by someone like Drew, Archbishop-designate Casey offered some clarity.
“The blessing comes from God. As a priest, as Bishop, we are not magicians or wizards with our own powers. No, no no...it is the Holy Spirit that works through us,” he expressed.
FOX19 NOW asked Archbishop-designate Casey what he thinks of the city’s local delicacies, especially compared to the offerings of his hometown, Chicago.
“I find it much easier to talk about Graeter’s ice cream,” he said. “Everybody agrees that Graeter’s is wonderful ice cream. When I get in a conversation on chili, it gets a little more dicey.”
Coming from a central sports town, the new Archbishop said he is willing to adjust.
“I know I’ve got a lot to learn about being a Reds fan and a Bengals fan and who I root for in sports, and what’s the saying? ‘Who Dey’? I’ve got a lot to learn,” Archbishop-designate Casey added.
The mass installation for the Most Reverend Robert Casey will begin tomorrow at 2 p.m. and will be streamed live on FOX19 NOW’s digital platforms.
Archbishop Schnurr will attend the ceremony to pass the crosier to Casey, who will be installed as the next Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2025 WXIX. All rights reserved.
