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BISHOP ANTHONY M. PILLA TO PRESENT OBERLIN BACCALAUREATE ADDRESS MAY 27

MAY 16, 2001--The Most Reverend Anthony M. Pilla, the ninth bishop of Cleveland, will present Oberlin College’s 2001 baccalaureate address at 4 P.M. Sunday, May 27, in Oberlin's Finney Chapel at the corner of Professor and Lorain streets. The baccalaureate service is free and open to the public.

Pilla, whose talk is titled "What You Can Do To Make Life Better For Others," says, "Our world cries out today for persons of maturity and generosity willing to apply their talents for betterment of society; each graduate can make a difference."

The baccalaureate program will include music by the Oberlin Choristers, who will perform under the direction of founder Katherine Plank. SeungShin Yoo '01 of Oberlin, a piano performance major in the Conservatory of Music, will perform the prelude and postlude. The program also will include "Jubilate Deo" arranged by Paul Bouman; "I Life Mine Eyes Unto the Hills" (Psalm 121); and the hymns "City of God," "Cry of the Poor" and "Lead On, Oh King Eternal."

The Cleveland native heads the 11^th largest Catholic diocese in the country, with more than 900,000 members. He also is the author of the widely-acclaimed Church in the City. Concerned by the increasing isolation of people by race, culture and income in the greater Cleveland area due to urban disinvestment, outmigration and sprawl, Bishop Pilla developed the Church in the City program as a mandate for social action. It is considered one of the most far-sighted pastoral initiatives in the modern American Catholic Church.

Pilla was president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops from 1995 to 1998 and vice president from 1992 to 1995. Beyond his religious leadership and extensive work with the Catholic Church, Bishop Pilla serves on the boards, committees and advisory panels of many community organizations.

Installed January 6, 1981, as bishop of the Cleveland diocese, Pilla served as auxiliary bishop from 1979 to 1981; the bishop's secretary for services to clergy and religious from 1975 to 1979; and rector-president of Borromeo College Seminary from 1972 to1975. He joined the faculty at Borromeo in1960 after serving a year as associate pastor at St. Bartholomew Parish in Middleburg Heights. He was ordained to the priesthood May 23, 1959.

The prelate was educated in public schools until high school, when he entered Cathedral Latin School and then St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati. His preparation for the priesthood was completed at Saint Mary Seminary in Cleveland. He also received a BA degree in philosophy and an MA degree in history from John Carroll University.

Media Contact: Betty Gabrielli