Our Archbishops

1. Archbishop Antonine Blanc (1850 - 1860)

2. Archbishop Jean-Marie Odin (1861 - 1870)

3. Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché (1870 - 1883)

4. Archbishop Francis Xavier Leray (1883 - 1887)

5. Archbishop Francis Janssens (1888 - 1897)

6. Archbishop Placide-Louis Chapelle (1897 - 1905)

In 1842, Placide Louis Chapelle was born in Fraissinet-de-Lozère to Jean Pierre and Sophia (née Viala) Chapelle. His mother died in childbirth in 1847, when Chapelle was five years old.  Chapelle began his classical studies at Mende, France, and concluded them at Enghien, Belgium. At age 17, he was brought to the United States by his uncle Jean Chapelle, a missionary priest in Haiti who worked on the Vatican's concordat with the Haitian government and was on the eve of being appointed Archbishop of Port-au-Prince before his death in 1861.

After a brilliant course of philosophy and theology at St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, he received the degree of S.T.D.  Ordained priest, June 28, 1865, he was sent as pastor to St. John's Church, Rockville, Maryland, and four years later was named pastor of St. Joseph's in Baltimore. In 1882, he was appointed to St. Matthew's, Washington, where he soon became the leading Catholic clergyman.  Fr. Chapelle was consecrated in November 1891 in Baltimore, the titular bishop of Arabissus and coadjutor to Archbishop Salpointe of Sante Fé, New Mexico, with the right of succession; he succeeded to that see, January 7, 1894.  He was transferred to the Archdiocese of New Orleans on December 7, 1897.

The Holy See appointed him, October 11, 1898, Apostolic Delegate to Cuba and Porto Rico and Envoy Extraordinary to the Philippine Islands. He proved himself equal to this important and delicate mission. He spoke French, Spanish, and English, was thoroughly acquainted with the laws of the Church and the spirit of the American Constitution, and rendered valuable services to the Holy See and to the United States. Being in Paris during the negotiations for the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain, he obtained the insertion therein of the clause which confirmed to the Catholic Church the possession of all properties to which she had a right under the Spanish Government. He was appointed by Leo XIII Apostolic Delegate to the Philippines, August 9, 1899, and arrived at Manila, January 24, 1900. His first act was to persuade General Otis to liberate the priests and religious held prisoners by Aguinaldo. After reorganizing the affairs of the Church, he helped greatly in the general pacification of the country.

Pope Leo XIII acknowledged and highly praised in a pontifical Brief the work of Archbishop Chapelle. His mission in the Philippines being at an end, Leo XIII retained him as Apostolic Delegate to Cuba and Puerto Rico and named him Assistant to the Pontifical Throne and Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Pius X, in an autograph letter of October 8, 1904, said to Archbishop Chapelle: "You have rendered most signal services to the Church in Cuba and Porto Rico." Though having an auxiliary bishop, he wished to visit personally all the parishes of Louisiana, and he returned from Havana on May 30, 1905, to fulfil this pastoral duty. Yellow fever had just broken out in New Orleans, and he started without delay for the city, to be with his stricken people. He took the fever himself, and died, August 9, 1905, after having in a pastoral, written four days before his death, offered to God his life for his people.

7. Archbishop James Blenk, S.M. (1906 - 1917) 

8. Archbishop John W. Shaw (1918 - 1934)

Archbishop John W. Shaw was appointed by Pope Benedict XV as the  eighth Archbishop of New Orleans.

9. Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel (1935 - 1964)

Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel served as the 9th Archbishop of New Orleans.

On October 14, 1876, Joseph Francis Rummel was born in Germany. After obtaining his doctorate in Rome and serving as a priest in New York City and Omaha, NE, for twenty-five years, he headed south on March 9, 1935, when he was named the ninth Archbishop of New Orleans upon the death of Archbishop John William Shaw.

Archbishop Rummel served as the local leader of the Catholic Church for twenty-nine years. During his tenure in New Orleans, the Church enjoyed a period of great growth.  From 1935 until 1960, the number of students in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese grew from fewer than 40,000 to more than 85,000.  The number of church parishes increased from 135 to 180. Recognizing the need for expansion, Archbishop Rummel launched the Youth Progress Program in 1945 to raise money for education and the building of schools.  Some seventy new schools were opened by the Archdiocese under the direction of Archbishop Rummel.

In 1953 Archbishop Rummel issued a pastoral letter entitled “Blessed are the Peacemakers.”   In this letter, which was read in every Catholic Church in New Orleans, Archbishop Rummel officially ordered the end of segregation in the Archdiocese by stating, “Let there be no further discrimination or segregation in the pews, at the Communion rail, at the confessional, and in parish meetings, just as there will be no segregation in the kingdom of Heaven.”

During 1958 Archbishop Rummel began an archdiocesan-wide campaign to finance the construction of four new high schools in Jefferson Parish, all of which opened in 1962. Archbishop Rummel High School was one of those schools and was named for him, despite his protests.

Archbishop Rummel’s health began to fail in 1960.  Despite his age, his poor health, and an almost total loss of sight, he maintained an active interest in Church affairs.  He participated in the dedication of Archbishop Rummel High School in the fall of 1962 and he journeyed to Rome for the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

On November 9, 1964, this strong, determined spiritual leader went to his eternal reward, leaving behind a heritage of good works – including the school that bears his name.  The spirit of Joseph Francis Rummel continues to live in the faculty, the student body, and the alumni of Archbishop Rummel High School, a spirit characterized by Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel’s own motto, animam pro ovibus onere, or “to give one’s life for the sheep.”

10.Archbishop John P. Cody (1964 - 1965)

11. Archbishop Philip Matthew Hannan (1965 - 1989)

Archbishop Philip Matthew Hannan served as the 11th Archbishop of New Orleans.  

Archbishop Philip Matthew Hannan was born in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 1913, the fifth of eight children (one girl and seven boys) born to Mr. and Mrs. Patrick Francis
Hannan.  His father, an Irish immigrant known by friends and family as “The Boss,” came to the U.S. at 18 and found work as a plumber, building his trade into a flourishing business that weathered even the Great Depression.

He attended St. Charles College in Catonville, MD, and the Sulpician Seminary in Washington, receiving a master’s degree from Catholic University before going in 1936 to the North American College in Rome, where he experienced firsthand the growing tensions in Europe and the preparations for WWII.  He held a licentiate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome and a doctorate in canon law from the Catholic University of America.

In 1942 he volunteered as a wartime paratroop chaplain and served with the 505th Parachute Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. After cursory instructions on the ground, he took five practice jumps in order to earn his official status as a paratroop chaplain.  After his first jump, he was appointed “jump master” to a small crew of greenhorn jumpers and he affectionately became known as “The Jumping Padre.”  Once asked if he feared jumping, Archbishop Hannan said relaxing and forgetting his dignity was the formula for safety.  In 1945, as the horrors of Nazi prisoner-of-war camps became widely known, Chaplain Hannan liberated a camp of emaciated prisoners at Wöbbelin.  Discharged in 1946 he held the rank of major.

After the war, Father Hannan was assigned as assistant at St. Mary’s Church, Washington.  In 1948 he was appointed Vice Chancellor of the newly established Archdiocese of Washington and in 1949 completed his doctorate in canon law.  In December 1955, Pope Pius XII raised him to the rank of Domestic Prelate with the title of Right Reverend Monsignor.

The appointment of Bishop Hannan to become the 11th Archbishop of New Orleans was announced in Washington on September 29, 1965 – about three weeks after Hurricane Betsy had devastated New Orleans.  At that time he was attending sessions of the Second Vatican Council in Rome.  He flew to New Orleans on October 12 and was installed the following day in St. Louis Cathedral by Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, apostolic delegate in the United States.

The new archbishop was immediately confronted with the problem of surveying the massive damage inflicted by Betsy.  The archbishop personally visited the areas affected and disbursed funds and other relief goods and materials to those families affected by the storm (a gesture he repeated in 1969 following Hurricane Camille).

Archbishop Philip M. Hannan died on September 29, 2011. 

12. Archbishop Francis B. Schulte (1989 - 2002)

Archbishop Francis B. Schulte  served as the 12th Archbishop of New Orleans.  

Archbishop Schulte was born on December 23, 1926 in Philadelphia, PA to Mr. and Mrs. Francis Xavier Schulte.  He was ordained a priest on May 10, 1952.

On June 27, 1981, Pope John Paul II appointed Archbishop Schulte was as Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. On June 4, 1985, Pope John Paul II appointed Archbishop Schulte as the sixth Bishop of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. 

Archbishop Schulte was appointed as the twelfth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans on December 6, 1988 and was installed on February 14, 1989.  He served until January of 2002.

Archbishop Francis B. Schulte died on January 17, 2016. 

13. Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes (2002 - 2009)

Archbishop Alfred Clifton Hughes served as the 13th Archbishop of New Orleans.  

Born December 2, 1932, Archbishop Hughes was educated in public schools in his native Boston, MA, until he entered the seminary. He attended St. John Seminary College, Brighton, Massachusetts, and the Pontifical North American College, Rome, and was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Boston on December 15, 1957. Archbishop Hughes earned a Doctorate in Sacred Theology, with a special emphasis in spiritual theology, from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1961. 

He had a long career at St. John Seminary in Brighton, where he served first as a professor of philosophy and spirituality, then as spiritual director and eventually rector. He was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston on September 14, 1981. When his term as seminary rector ended, he served for four years as Regional Bishop of the Merrimack Region of the Archdiocese of Boston, and in 1990 was appointed Vicar General and Vicar of Administration.

On September 7, 1993, Pope John Paul II appointed him Bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge in 1993.  Archbishop Hughes was installed as Baton Rouge's fourth bishop on November 4, 1993. 

On February 16, 2001, Pope John Paul II transferred Archbishop Hughes to be the Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans, which he assumed on May 2, 2001.  He became Metropolitan Archbishop of New Orleans on January 3, 2002.

Upon retiring in 2009, Archbishop Hughes has served as Adjunct Professor and Adjunct Spiritual Director at Notre Dame Seminary. 

14. Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond (2009 - present) 

Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond served as the 14th Archbishop of New Orleans. Archbishop Aymond holds the unique distinction of being the first New Orleans native to serve as Archbishop of New Orleans in the history of the local church.Archbishop Aymond was born in New Orleans on November 12, 1949. After attending St. James Major Elementary School and Cor Jesu High School, in the Gentilly neighborhood, he went to St. Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict, La. and graduated in 1971. He earned a master's degree in divinity from Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans in 1975 and was ordained as a priest of the New Orleans Archdiocese the same year.

From 1973 to 1981, he was a professor, business administrator and then Rector of St. John Vianney Preparatory Seminary in New Orleans. From 1981 to 1986, he was professor of pastoral theology and homiletics and Director of Education at Notre Dame Seminary.
The archbishop served as President-Rector of Notre Dame Seminary from 1986 until the end of the 1999-2000 academic year, longer than any rector in the seminary's history. He also was a member of the seminary faculty for 18 years. During his tenure, Notre Dame Seminary grew to become the third-largest seminary in the country.  Archbishop Aymond was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans in 1997.

Archbishop Aymond also served as the executive director of the archdiocesan Department of Christian Formation, with responsibility for Catholic schools and religious education, and as the Archdiocesan Director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.

He made mission work a strong emphasis of his ministry. In the 1980s, Archbishop Aymond and groups of seminarians from Notre Dame Seminary began to visit Sotuto, Mexico, where they built housing and offered religious training.

In 1994, he began a medical mission program in Nicaragua called 'Christ the Healer,' taking volunteer teams of health care professionals to the town of Granada to offer medical help at San Juan de Dios Hospital.

Archbishop Aymond was named Bishop of Austin in 2000. Under his tenure, the Diocese of Austin experienced unprecedented expansion, including a threefold increase in the number of seminarians. He established the Institute for Spiritual Direction, opened San Juan Diego Catholic High School for students from low-income families, opened St. Dominic Savio Catholic High School and initiated a distance learning program with St. Mary's University in San Antonio that allows lay people in the Austin Diocese to obtain master's degrees in theology.

Archbishop Aymond has served as chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People. He also was chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Catholic Educational Association from 2000-04.

Archbishop Aymond was installed as Archbishop of New Orleans on August 20, 2009. 

15. Coadjutor Archbishop James F. Checchio (2025 - present)

On September 24, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Most Reverend James F. Checchio, bishop of Metuchen, as Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans.  

Coadjutor Archbishop Checchio is a native of Camden, New Jersey, and was named the Bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen by Pope Francis on March 8, 2016. He was ordained and installed as the Fifth Bishop of Metuchen on May 3, 2016. 

Before being named Bishop, he served as rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome from January 2006 to January 2016, after serving as vice rector there for two and a half years. He studied at North American College, Rome, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Camden, N.J. on June 20, 1992.  Coadjutor Archbishop Checchio has a degree in Sacred Theology, a Master of Business Administration, and doctorate in Canon Law.

Archbishop Checchio will be welcomed to his new role as Coadjutor Archbishop during his Mass of Welcome on November 18, 2025 at St. Louis Cathedral. 

Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond remains the current archbishop of New Orleans, and the appointment as coadjutor archbishop confers on Bishop Checchio the right of succession for the Archdiocese of New Orleans.