James D. Schuck, OFM

1913 – 1993

Bishop James Schuck, OFM, was born Jan. 17, 1913 in Trevorton, Pa. He graduated from St. Joseph’s Seraphic Seminary, Callicoon, N.Y., and entered the novitiate at St. Bonaventure Friary, Paterson, N.J., in 1933. Bishop Shuck professed temporary vows one year later, made his solemn profession in 1937 and was ordained in 1940.

He began his ministry as a professor at St. Bonaventure College, Allegany, N.Y., in 1941. Two years later, he applied to minister in the newly established mission of Goias in Brazil. He became president of Colegio S. Francisco in Anapolis, Goias in 1945 and was a leader in Catholic education. From 1955 to 1959, he served as Provincial delegate.

On Feb. 24, 1959, appointed by Pope John XXIII, he was consecrated in Holy Cross Cathedral, Boston, as titular bishop of Avissa and prelate nullius of Christalandia, Brazil. Bishop Fulton Sheen, a friend of Bishop Schuck, preached for the occasion and once described the friar-bishop as a “great preacher and a long standing hero of mine.” Bishop Schuck’s mission territory covered 56,000 miles, and he had four Franciscan friars to work with him at the time among the 65,000 people in his territory. His fellow bishop and friend, Bishop Dominic Coscia, described him as a “man of firmness and fairness — a just and persevering friar.”

He died on Jan. 31, 1993 at St. Clare’s Hospital in Denville, N.J. Bishop Schuck was 80 years old, a professed friar for 58 years, a priest for 52 years and a bishop for almost 34 years.