Joseph Anthony Galante

Born in Philadelphia, Galante attended Saint Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, where he received his BA in 1960. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 16, 1964. At the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome he earned his doctorate in canon law and at the University of St. Thomas "Angelicum" a master's degree in spiritual theology.[1]

He was named Undersecretary of the Congregation for Religious in December 1986. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of San Antonio, Texas, in October 1992, and then held two other Texas positions: Bishop of Beaumont from 1994 to 1999 and Coadjutor Bishop of Dallas from 1999 to 2004. He was appointed Bishop of Camden in 2004.[1]

In a 2011 letter to Catholics in his diocese, he announced that he was suffering from chronic kidney disease caused by diabetes, but indicated that he could continue to serve as Bishop of Camden.[2] In 2012 he asked to be allowed to resign for health reasons, and he served until his resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI on January 8, 2013.[3]

Galante died on May 25, 2019 at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, New Jersey from a long illness.[4]

On April 2, 2008, Galante announced large-scale mergers and closings of half of the parishes in the Camden diocese.

In January 2011, parishioners of the closed St Mary's Church in Malaga, New Jersey, re-entered the church and began an around-the-clock vigil that attracted regional and national media attention.[5]

On July 18, 2008 the New York Post reported Galante's involvement in the so-called Vati-Con scandal involving Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri, billionaire investor Ronald Burkle and Hollywood actress Anne Hathaway.[6] The Post reports that Galante sold Follieri a private beach house for $400,000 in 2007 and that one of Galante's priests misrepresented himself to potential investors. At the time Follieri was negotiating with the Diocese of Camden and other North American Roman Catholic dioceses to buy churches with Burkle money and sell the properties for later profit. In September 2008, Follieri pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges, and Manhattan Federal Judge John Koeltl and the next month, imposed a ​4 ¹⁄₂-year prison sentence.[7] The Galante/Follieri beach house in North Wildwood, New Jersey was put back on the market in 2008 and sold almost two years later for $310,000.[8][9] Galante was never charged in relation to the scandal.

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Camden Official Site