VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has named Father Neil Tiedemann, a Brooklyn-born member of the provincial council for the Passionist order, as bishop of Mandeville, Jamaica.
He succeeds Bishop Gordon D. Bennett, a former auxiliary bishop in the Baltimore Archdiocese who resigned in August 2006 for health reasons.
The announcement was made at the Vatican May 20.
Bishop-designate Tiedemann, 60, has worked in parishes in Honduras, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey. He was elected in 2006 as second provincial consultor in the Passionists’ St. Paul of the Cross Province, based in Union City, N.J.
Born March 5, 1948, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Bishop-designate Tiedemann entered the Passionists in 1970 and made perpetual vows Aug. 22, 1974. He was ordained a priest May 16, 1975.
After his ordination, he worked as associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish in Jamaica, N.Y., 1975-82, and also worked for Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens, 1977-78.
His other posts included: St. Joseph’s Passionist Parish, Union City, 1982-84 and 1995-97; Blessed Sacrament Parish, Springfield, Mass., 1984-87; Immaculate Conception, Jamaica, 1997-98; and Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, Brooklyn, 1998.
Bishop-designate Tiedemann worked in pastoral ministry in Honduras, 1987-94 and 2005-06.
The Mandeville Diocese, created in 1997, has about 8,800 Catholics in a population of 582,000. It is served by 43 priests and 34 religious.