VATICAN CITY (OSV News) ─ Pope Leo XIV has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Michael A. Saporito of Newark, New Jersey, as the new bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey, the Vatican announced Sept. 15.
Bishop Saporito, 64, succeeds Metuchen's former Bishop James F. Checchio, whom Pope Leo named archbishop of New Orleans earlier this year. The Diocese of Metuchen has been without a bishop since November 2025, when Archbishop Checchio was installed as coadjutor of the New Orleans Archdiocese.
"I am deeply grateful and humbled that Pope Leo XIV has called me to serve as the Bishop of Metuchen," Bishop Saporito said in a statement following the announcement. "While it is not easy to leave the people and places that have formed and sustained me, I welcome this new mission with trust in the Holy Spirit."
Born in Newark in 1962, Bishop Saporito has served as an auxiliary bishop in his home archdiocese since 2020, assisting Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin in overseeing the archdiocese, which is home to 1.3 million Catholics.
Throughout his ministry, Bishop Saporito has had a focus on the new evangelization, serving on the Archdiocese of Newark's Evangelization Commission and as a board member of Christlife, an evangelization apostolate based in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. In Newark, he led the pastoral initiative "We Are His Witnesses" and served on the archdiocesan synod team.
He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Rutgers University Newark and worked as an accountant for three years before entering the archdiocesan seminary in 1987. He was ordained a priest in 1992 by then-Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick.
As the sixth bishop of Metuchen, Bishop Saporito will lead a diocese of about 1.5 million people, of whom more than 670,000 are Catholic. The New Jersey diocese encompasses Hunterdon, Middlesex, Somerset and Warren counties, and is served by 192 priests, 196 deacons, and 193 men and women religious.
"I look forward to meeting the priests, deacons, religious and lay faithful of the Diocese, walking with them as we seek to follow Jesus Christ and bear witness to the hope of the Gospel," Bishop Saporito said.
The Vatican also announced the resignation of Bishop Francis I. Malone of Shreveport, Louisiana. Bishop Malone, 76, submitted his resignation to the pope last year at the age of 75, as required by canon law. Bishop Robert W. Marshall of Alexandria, Louisiana, will serve as the apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Shreveport until the appointment and installation of a new bishop.
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Courtney Mares is Vatican editor for OSV News. Follow her on X @catholicourtney.
