Bishop Mark E. Brennan has announced the appointment of Monsignor Eugene S. Ostrowski as vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, effective earlier this week.
After the bishop, the vicar general is the highest-ranking official in the diocese, having authority to exercise a degree of Episcopal jurisdiction in the bishop’s name.
“I am very grateful to Monsignor Ostrowski for his continuing contributions to the Diocese,” Brennan said. “As I continue to travel the diocese to learn the needs of our people and parishes, who better to assist me than this long-time priest who has been committed to doing the work of Christ for the people of West Virginia?
“Monsignor Ostrowski,” Brennan added, “has served the Church in a number of ways — as teacher, pastor, a member of the Diocesan Consultors, the Presbyteral Council and on the Pastoral Planning Commission under Bishop Bernard Schmitt. His experience in both parishes and schools will be a great benefit not only to me, but also to the faithful of the Mountain State.”
“I am happy to be of service to Bishop Brennan in the role of Vicar General for the Diocese,” Ostrowski said. “I look forward to assisting Bishop Brennan in the early part of his episcopacy as he works to heal our Diocesan Church.”
Msgr. Ostrowski is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston May 21, 1977, by Bishop Joseph H. Hodges. Before his ordination, he served for 23 years as a Marist brother and taught at Central Catholic High School in Wheeling; St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, Connecticut; and Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He has also served on the faculty at Wheeling Jesuit University.
Msgr. Ostrowski was an associate pastor at St. Anthony Parish in Follansbee from 1977-78 before becoming the diocesan director of spirituality and worship. He later served as a pro- synodal judge and defender of the bond in the Tribunal and became director of pastoral planning in 1987, a position he held until becoming pastor of Corpus Christi in 1998.
