Florida Catholic | Biography :: Archbishop John C. Favalora

Archbishop John C. Favalora

Archbishop John Clement Favalora was born Dec. 5, 1935, in New Orleans. He studied for the priesthood at St. Joseph Seminary in St. Benedict, La.; Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans; and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, where he was ordained Dec. 20, 1961.

After returning to his home diocese of New Orleans, he obtained certification as a secondary school teacher from Xavier University in New Orleans. Subsequently he attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and obtained a master’s degree in education degree from Tulane University in New Orleans.

He worked as a pastor, high school principal, director of vocations and rector-president of Notre Dame Seminary until his appointment as bishop of the Diocese of Alexandria, La., on June 24, 1986. On March 7, 1989, he was appointed third bishop of the Diocese of St. Petersburg on Florida’s west coast. He was appointed to succeed retiring Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy Nov. 3, 1994, becoming the third archbishop of Miami. Archbishop Favalora was installed Dec. 20, 1994, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Miami by the apostolic pro-nuncio, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan.

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