Joseph Armando Espaillat II (born December 27, 1976) is a

Dominican-American Dominican Americans (, ) are Americans who trace their ancestry to the Dominican Republic. The phrase may refer to someone born in the United States of Dominican descent or to someone who has migrated to the United States from the Dominican R ...

prelate A prelate () is a high-ranking member of the Minister (Christianity), Christian clergy who is an Ordinary (church officer), ordinary or who ranks in precedence with ordinaries. The word derives from the Latin , the past participle of , which me ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

who has served as an

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

for the

Archdiocese of New York The Archdiocese of New York () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the New York (state), State of New York. It encompasses the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York ...

since 2022.

Biography

Early life

Joseph Espaillat was born on December 27, 1976, in New York City, the son of José and Mercedes Baez. His parents had immigrated to

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

from the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

; the

USCCB The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 2001 after the merger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Co ...

's African-American secretariat has described him as being of partial African descent. Espaillat attended high school at Cathedral Preparatory School in Manhattan. He later entered

Fordham University Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...

in New York City, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1998.

Priesthood

On May 17, 2003, Espaillat was ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan by Cardinal

Edward Egan Edward Michael Egan (April 2, 1932 – March 5, 2015) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Bridgeport from 1988 to 2000 and as Archbishop of New York from 2000 to 2009. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2001. Earl ...

for the Archdiocese of New York. After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned Espaillat as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Martyrs Parish in Washington Heights in Manhattan. That same year, he was awarded a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

degree in theology and a Master of Arts degree in theology, with an emphasis on church history, from St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, New York. In 2007, Espaillat was moved from Our Lady to become parochial vicar, then administrator of St. Peter's Parish in

Yonkers Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

; he was named pastor there in 2009. In 2012, Cardinal

Timothy Dolan Timothy Michael Dolan (born February 6, 1950) is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of New York since 2009 and as a cardinal since 2012. Dolan served as the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ( ...

appointed Espaillat as director of youth ministry for the archdiocese. In, 2015, Espaillat was named pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Parish in Bronx, New York.

Auxiliary Bishop of New York

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

appointed Espaillat as an auxiliary bishop of New York on January 25, 2022. Espaillat was consecrated as a bishop at St. Patrick's Cathedral by Cardinal

on March 1, 2022, with bishops

John O'Hara John Henry O'Hara (January 31, 1905 – April 11, 1970) was an American writer. He was one of America's most prolific writers of Short story, short stories, credited with helping to invent ''The New Yorker'' magazine short story style.John O'H ...

and Gerald Walsh acting as co-consecrators. At age 45, Espaillat became the youngest Catholic bishop in the United States and one of the youngest in the world.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York Official Site

Episcopal succession

1976 births Living people Fordham University alumni American Roman Catholic priests Bishops appointed by Pope Francis Dominican Republic diaspora in the United States Dominican-American culture in New York (state) American people of Dominican Republic descent Afro-Latino culture in the United States African diaspora in the Dominican Republic {{US-RC-bishop-stub