Lewis Jerome Zeigler (4 January 1944 – 12 August 2022) was a Liberian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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 ...

who served as the Archbishop of Monrovia since 2011 until 2021. Zeigler was born in Harrisburg in 1944 and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

in 1974 before he was appointed in 2002 as the Bishop of Gbarnga. He was later named as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Monrovia in 2009 and ascended to head the diocese in 2011 after his predecessor died in office. Zeigler was a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

prelate who opposed

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

and

abortion Abortion is the early termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. Abortions that occur without intervention are known as miscarriages or "spontaneous abortions", and occur in roughly 30–40% of all pregnan ...

in Liberia.

Life

Lewis Jerome Zeigler was born in 1944 in Harrisburg in Liberia. He was

to the priesthood in

Monrovia Monrovia () is the administrative capital city, capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liber ...

on 22 December 1974 and was incardinated in the Gbarnga diocese just over a decade later on 17 November 1986.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed Zeigler as the Bishop of Gbarnga and Zeigler received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

on 9 November 2002 from

Michael Kpakala Francis Michael Kpakala Francis (12 February 1936 – 19 May 2013) was a Liberian prelate of the Catholic Church who led the Apostolic Vicariate of Monrovia from 1976 to 1981 and then served as the first Archbishop of the newly established Roman Catho ...

at the Gbarnga Cathedral. He later was transferred to Monrovia in 2009 after

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

appointed him as the

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

to Francis which also meant he would succeed Francis at once following the latter's resignation or death. In 2011 he became the Archbishop of Monrovia after Francis resigned and he was installed at some point after. On 11 June 2018 he made his first " ad limina apostolorum" visit to

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 ...

Positions

Priesthood

In 2015 at the

Chrism Mass The Chrism Mass is a religious service held in certain Christian denominations, such as Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism. It is usually celebrated each year on Maundy Thursday or on another day of Holy Week. During the ceremony, th ...

the archbishop called on priests to desist from activities that distract them from their ecclesial duties and said that most priests seemed to chase wealth and material goods involved with the world rather than focusing their lives on the Church. Zeigler said: "It is my appeal to all of you, my fellow priests, to serve and not to chase things of the world like iPhones, iPads and whatever". Zeigler also called on the faithful to pray for their pastors whenever they do wrong since it would "help to strengthen and put them on the right path".

Corruption

Zeigler has referred to corruption as the major foe to nation building in Liberia and has said that corruption hinders national progress. The archbishop said that "our society is sick" due to greed and selfishness which has swallowed the nation. He also called on Liberians to fight against corruption by focusing on defeating individual greed.

Homosexuality

In an address at an official service at the Providence Baptist Church as a guest speaker on 11 April 2014, the archbishop spoke against

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or Human sexual activity, sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexu ...

and

, observing that Liberian culture was being denigrated by calamity due to Liberians "ignoring their creator" and entering into "unwholesome activities that continue to annoy God". Zeigler also said that such national crises such as the

Ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

outbreak came about due to the dissolute ways Liberians lived that displeased God. Zeigler further referred to same-sex marriage as an "abomination".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zeigler, Lewis Jerome 1944 births 2022 deaths 21st-century Liberian people 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Africa Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II Liberian Roman Catholic archbishops People from Monrovia Roman Catholic archbishops of Monrovia Roman Catholic bishops of Gbarnga