Washington, D.C. – Pope Francis has named Monsignor Alfred A. Schlert as Bishop of Allentown, Pennsylvania. Monsignor Schlert is currently the diocesan administrator of the diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The appointment was publicized in Washington, June 27, by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Bishop-elect Schlert was born in Easton, Pennsylvania July 24, 1961. He prepared for the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary near Philadelphia and the Pontifical Roman Seminary and St. John Lateran University in Rome. He received a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical Lateran University in 1992. He was ordained a priest on September 19, 1987.
Assignments after ordination included: assistant pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Allentown; professor at his alma mater Notre Dame High School; and Catholic chaplain at Lehigh University. He was named Vice Chancellor and Secretary to the bishop in 1997; and was named vicar general of the diocese of Allentown in 1998.
Pope St. John Paul II named him Chaplain to His Holiness with the title of Monsignor in 1999. Pope Benedict named him a Prelate of Honor, the second highest rank of Monsignor, in 2005.
While still serving as Vicar General, he was still pastor of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church in Hellertown, 2008-2010, when he resumed full time service as vicar general.
In addition, Bishop-elect Schlert is Vice President of the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and a member of its administrative board. He also served on the diocesan council of priests, the diocesan financial council, and the diocesan college of consultors. He is also a member of the board of trustees for DeSales University.
The Diocese of Allentown has been a vacant see since December, 2016 when it was announced Pope Francis had transferred Allentown Bishop John O. Barres to serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Center in Long Island, New York.
The Diocese comprises 2,773 square miles and it has total population of approximately 1,161,932 people of which 272,300, or 23 percent, are Catholic.
