Joseph A. Espaillat

Early life

Joseph Espaillat was born on December 27, 1976, in New York City, the son of José and Mercedes Baez. His parents had immigrated to Manhattan from the Dominican Republic; the USCCB's African-American secretariat has described him as being of partial African descent. Espaillat attended high school at Cathedral Preparatory School in Manhattan. He later entered Fordham University in New York City, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1998.

Priesthood

On May 17, 2003, Espaillat was ordained to the priesthood at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan by Cardinal Edward Egan for the Archdiocese of New York.

After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned Espaillat as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Martyrs Parish in Washington Heights in Manhattan. That same year, he was awarded a Master of Divinity degree in theology and a Master of Arts degree in theology, with an emphasis on church history, from St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, New York.

In 2007, Espaillat was moved from Our Lady to become parochial vicar, then administrator of St. Peter's Parish in Yonkers; he was named pastor there in 2009. In 2012, Cardinal Timothy Dolan appointed Espaillat as director of youth ministry for the archdiocese. Espaillat left St. Peter's in 2015 when he was named pastor of St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Parish in Bronx, New York.

Auxiliary Bishop of New York

Pope Francis appointed Espaillat as an auxiliary bishop of New York on January 25, 2022.Espaillat was consecrated as a bishop at St. Patrick's Cathedral by Cardinal Timothy Dolan on March 1, 2022, with Auxiliary Bishops John O'Hara and Gerald Walsh acting as co-consecrators. At age 45, Espaillat became the youngest Catholic bishop in the United States and one of the youngest in the world.