Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan

The Most Reverend Dennis J. Sullivan is the eighth bishop of Camden, New Jersey. He was installed on February 12, 2013.

A Bronx native, Bishop Sullivan was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of New York in 1971. Before coming to Camden, he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop for the archdiocese in 2004, and served eight years as vicar general under the late Edward Cardinal Egan and Timothy Cardinal Dolan.

Before becoming a bishop, he served in parish ministry as pastor of Ss. John and Paul Church, Larchmont, 2002-04, and St. Teresa in Manhattan, 1982-2002.

Bishop Sullivan also served as parochial vicar at the Parish of St. Elizabeth, Manhattan; Ascension, Manhattan, and Ss. Philip and James, the Bronx, from 1971 to 1981. In 1999 he was named a Prelate of Honor to His Holiness.

Bishop Sullivan has long served in pastoral ministry to immigrants. In 1969 he attended the Summer Spanish Language Institute at the Catholic University in Ponce, Puerto Rico. After ordination in 1971, he was assigned to the Dominican Republic to continue Spanish language studies and culture in preparation for assisting the growing number of Dominicans in New York.  Bishop Sullivan attended the Dominican Institute for Pastoral Adaptation in Moca, Dominican Republic, and had mission experience in Tenares, Dominican Republic.

While pastor at St. Teresa’s in Manhattan, Bishop Sullivan ministered to Chinese immigrants.

Born in the Bronx on March 17, 1945, Bishop Sullivan is the third of four children of Hanorah Hayes Sullivan and John Sullivan. He was educated at St. Anthony Parish Elementary School and Mount St. Michael Academy in the Bronx. He attended Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., but left after sophomore year to enter St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., where he earned a bachelor’s in 1967 and a Masters of Divinity three years later.

Throughout his ministry, Bishop Sullivan has served on a variety of boards and committees, including:

•  Three terms elected to the Presbyteral Council of the Archdiocese of New York as representative of South Manhattan Priests;
•  Board Member of the Lower East Side Catholic Area Conference, a pastoral agency;
•  Board Member of the Inter Parish Finance Committee, Archdiocese of New York, which assists poor parishes;
•  It’s Time Inc. Social Service Agency;
•  Board Member, Cabrini Immigrant Services;
•  Board Member, Immigrant Social Service, Inc., an agency that provides services for Asian American Youth;
•  Two Bridges Neighborhood Association – built 2,200 moderate income apartments;
•  Waterfront Coalition – to redevelop the waterfront on the East Side;
•  Asian Pastoral Immersion Experience, exposure to Asian, culture and Catholic Church in Asian;
•  Catholic Campaign for Human Development Committee – United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, for a two year term. At the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops he also serves on the Sub Committee on Asian and Pacific Island Affairs and was Representative of Region II to the Committee for the Protection of Children and Young People.