Bishop Lombardo is originally from Connecticut, attended the University of Notre Dame and spent several years ministering around the world and in New York City as a founding member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, based in the Bronx.

As a priest, Bishop Lombardo dedicated a significant portion of his ministry to traveling the world doing large youth retreats. He was also part of several World Youth Day planning committees.

He came to Chicago in 2005 at the request of Cardinal Francis George to minister to the poor on the West Side at the former Our Lady of the Angels Parish.

While the parish closed in 1990, the buildings remained and now are home to the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels. The mission has flourished under Bishop Lombardo’s leadership: It operates food and clothing pantries; conducts afterschool, family and senior citizens’ programming; and hosts retreats, Bible camps and religious education classes.

Bishop Lombardo is one of the eight founding fathers of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a community started in 1987. The eight founders were Franciscan priests who had made their final professions and wanted “to work more definitively for personal and communal reform within the Catholic Church,” according to the community’s website.

Bishop was ordained a priest on May 12, 1990 and appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago and Titular Bishop of Munaziana on September 11, 2020. He was ordained Bishop on November 13, 202 and serves as the Episcopal Vicar for Vicariate III in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Father Jorge Torres, a priest of the Diocese of Orlando, has been appointed to serve as a Specialist for the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), based in Washington, D.C. He began work on July 12, 2021.

Father Torres holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy from St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami and a Master’s in Divinity from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. He was ordained to the priesthood in 2005 and has served as parochial vicar of St. Ann Catholic Church in Haines City, and Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Oviedo, and as pastor of Holy Redeemer in Kissimmee. Father Torres’ priestly ministry includes service as chaplain for campus ministry at the University of Central Florida, vocation director of the Diocese of Orlando, and secretary of the National Conference of Diocesan Vocation Directors. He was serving as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Melbourne, Florida, at the time of his appointment to the USCCB. In announcing the appointment to the bishops, Monsignor Jeffrey D. Burrill, USCCB general secretary, expressed his gratitude to Bishop John G. Noonan of Orlando for releasing Father Torres for this service to the bishops’ conference.

Father Torres joins the Conference as the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis begins the promotion of a national Eucharistic Revival to renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The staff of the Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis provides support to the Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, which assists the bishops in fulfilling their role as both teachers and evangelizers.

For more on Fr. Torres, click HERE.