Matthew H. Clark


Matthew Harvey Clark is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the Eighth Bishop of Rochester from 1979 until 2012.

Early life and education

Matthew Clark was born in Waterford, New York, to Matthew and Grace Clark. He attended Catholic Central High School in Troy and Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, before entering Mater Christi Seminary in Albany.
He also attended St. Bernard's Seminary in Rochester, and then furthered his studies in Rome at the Pontifical North American College and the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Priesthood

While in Rome, Clark was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Martin O'Connor on December 19, 1962. He obtained a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Gregorian in 1963 and, upon his return to the United States, taught at the Vincentian Institute in Albany while serving at Our Lady of Mercy Parish.
Clark returned to the Gregorian in 1964, earning a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1966. From 1966 to 1967, he was vice-chancellor for the Diocese of Albany. He then served as assistant pastor at in Latham and chairman of the Diocesan Priests' Personnel Board. In 1972, Clark returned to Rome again to serve as assistant spiritual director of the North American College. He became its full spiritual director in 1974.

Episcopal career

On April 23, 1979, Clark was appointed the eighth Bishop of Rochester by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 27 from John Paul II himself, with Archbishop Duraisamy Simon Lourdusamy and Eduardo Martínez Somalo serving as co-consecrators, at St. Peter's Basilica. He selected as his episcopal motto: "God's Love Endures Forever".
Clark succeeded the retiring Joseph Lloyd Hogan and was formally installed at the Rochester War Memorial on June 26, 1979. His 33-year tenure as Bishop is the second-longest in the Diocese of Rochester's history, following the 40-year-long tenure of its founding bishop, Bernard John McQuaid.
In 1986, Clark was ordered by Cardinal Ratzinger at the Vatican to withdraw his imprimatur, or church approval, from a sex education manual written by a priest in his parish as being "defective" about church teachings. In 2003, Clark was criticized over his $11 million renovation and liturgical re-alignment of Sacred Heart Cathedral. Clark has received some credit for clamping down on abusive priests. In 2004, the diocese was deemed to be in "full compliance" with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops charter for the protection of children and young people. Clark presided over the unpopular closing of many of Rochester's schools and parishes, pledging to complete the "re-sizing" of the diocese prior to his retirement in 2012.
Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop Clark from the pastoral governance of the Rochester diocese on September 21, 2012. At the time of Bishop Clark's retirement, no successor was named. Bishop Robert Joseph Cunningham served as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Rochester, in addition to his responsibilities as Bishop of Syracuse, until the installation of Salvatore Matano.

Episcopal succession