The Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, will welcome a new shepherd, as Pope Leo XIV has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi and appointed Auxiliary Bishop Mark S. Rivituso of St. Louis as his successor.
The resignation and appointment were announced in Washington July 1 by Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S.
Archbishop Rodi, 76, had submitted his resignation to the pope in March 2024 upon reaching his 75th birthday, as required by canon law.
The archbishop, who has served in his current see for more than 17 years, will continue as apostolic administrator of the Mobile Archdiocese until the installation of Archbishop-designate Rivituso, expected to take place within about two months. The date and location of the installation Mass have not yet been finalized.
Archbishop Rodi hailed the appointment of his successor, saying in a July 1 statement he was “most grateful to the Holy Father for sending us this outstanding bishop.”
The 63-year-old Archbishop-designate Rivituso, a St. Louis native and the sixth of eight children, has ministered extensively throughout that archdiocese and has served as its vicar general since 2011.
A graduate of Cardinal Glennon College and Kenrick Seminary, both in St. Louis, he earned a licentiate in canon and civil law from St. Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario.
His call to priesthood was an early one, marked by a devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, before which he prayed daily while a student at St. Mary’s High School. His family regularly attended Eucharistic Holy Hours and also practiced devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. On Holy Thursday, they paid visits to the Blessed Sacrament at various Catholic churches.
His 1988 priestly ordination in St. Louis foreshadowed a future connection to Mobile: The late Archbishop John L. May, who ordained him, had led the Alabama archdiocese prior to his St. Louis appointment.
Archbishop-designate Rivituso was a confessor for the Little Sisters of the Poor as well as a chaplain for the Veterans Administration in St. Louis. In addition, he has long experience in prison and death-row ministry, and has advocated for the end of capital punishment in Missouri.
“The late Pope Francis really taught me about making sure that we’re mindful of those who are on the peripheries,” he said in an interview published July 1 by the St. Louis Review, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. “I feel like that’s always something that’s going to be important in my heart and ministry. The church is so blessed to be involved in the works of compassion, and I think that’s where we truly live what Jesus has called us to do about living his works of mercy.”
