Norbert Felix Gaughan

Styles of Norbert Felix Gaughan
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Bishop
Posthumous style	not applicable

Norbert Felix Gaughan (May 30, 1921 – October 1, 1999) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as auxiliary bishop of Diocese of Greensburg in the state of Pennsylvania from 1975–1984, and as the second bishop of the Diocese of Gary in the state of Indiana from 1984–1996.^[1]

Biography[]

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gaughan was ordained a Catholic priest on November 4, 1945 for the Diocese of Greensburg.

On April 2, 1975 Gaughan was named Titular Bishop of Taraqua and Auxiliary Bishop of Greensburg by Pope Paul VI. He was ordained a bishop by Bishop William G. Connare of Greensburg. Cyril Vogel, Bishop of Salina, and John McDowell, an auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh, were the principal co-consecrators.

On July 24, 1984 John Paul II named him to become the second bishop of the Diocese of Gary in Indiana. He served the Gary diocese as its bishop for a total of twelve years.^[2] In February 1992, Bishop Gaughan suffered a debilitating stroke. Because of his health situation, the pope appointed Bishop Dale Melczek, then an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, on August 19, 1992, to be the Apostolic Administrator sede plena of the diocese. On October 28, 1995 the pope appointed Bishop Melczek to be the coadjutor bishop of the Gary diocese. This meant that upon Gaughan's retirement, Melczek would succeed him immediately, in accordance with canon law as the next bishop of Gary.

Resignation and death[]

On June 1, 1996 the Holy See accepted Bishop Gaughan's resignation.^[3] Though valiant in his attempts to continue to minister to the people of the diocese, Bishop Gaughan spent the last years of his life at Saint Anthony Home in Crown Point. He died on October 1, 1999 and was buried in the Saint Emma Convent cemetery in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, after a funeral mass in Gary.

References[]