J. Terry Steib facts for kids

Styles of James Terry Steib
Reference style	His Excellency The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Bishop

James Terry Steib, S.V.D. (born May 17, 1940) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Steib served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri from 1983 to 1993. He became the first African-American bishop of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee in 1993, serving there until 2016.

Biography

Early life

James Terry Steib was born in Vacherie, Louisiana, one of five children of Rosemond and Vivian Steib. As a child, Steib worked with his family harvesting sugar cane. After graduating from high school, Steib attended St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and St. Michael's Mission House Seminary in Conesus, New York. He graduated with a bachelor degree from St. Mary's Mission Seminary in Techny, Illinois.

Priesthood

On January 6, 1967, Steib was ordained as a priest by Archbishop Philip Matthew Hannan for the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis. After his ordination, he started working at Saint Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, teaching English, literature, religion, reading and speech to high school students. He also held a position as assistant dean of students at Saint Stanislaus from 1967 to 1969. In 1973, Steib graduated from Xavier University in New Orleans with a master's degree in guidance and counseling.

In 1976, Steib was appointed as provincial superior of his order's Southern Province, holding that position for three years. In 1979, he became vice president of the Conference of Major Superiors of Men.

Auxiliary Bishop of St. Louis

On December 6, 1983, Pope John Paul II appointed Steib as an auxiliary bishop of St. Louis and titular bishop of Fallaba. He was consecrated on February 10, 1984, by Archbishop John L. May, with Auxiliary Bishops George Gottwald and Charles Koester serving as co-consecrators.

Bishop of Memphis

On March 24, 1993, John Paul II appointed Steib as bishop of Memphis. He was installed on May 5, 1993. One of Steib's primary accomplishments was reopening eight Catholic schools in Memphis that had been closed for financial reasons by a previous bishop. ..... After a church investigation, Steib banned Duran from ministry and sent him to a center for treatment. Duran was eventually defrocked. In 2006. the diocese settled the case for $2 million. In June 2005, Steib expressed his views on outreach to gays and lesbians in his pastoral letter "This Far by Faith":On September 9, 2005, a man sued Steib and the diocese in a case involving Reverend Paul St. Charles, a leader the Catholic Youth Organization in the diocese. ..... Steib had ordered a diocese review of the allegations in 2004 and on November 30, 2004, suspended St. Charles from ministry. ..... On December 21, 2015, the Memphis City Council renamed a portion of Central Avenue as J. Terry Steib Lane in honor of the bishop. On August 23, 2016, Pope Francis accepted Steib's letter of resignation as bishop of Memphis.

See also

• Catholic Church hierarchy
• Catholic Church in the United States
• Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
• List of Catholic bishops of the United States
• Lists of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops