Peter Joseph Jugis

Peter Joseph Jugis was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on March 3, 1957, and baptized at St. Ann's Catholic Church in 1957 by a priest who later became Bishop Michael J. Begley, Jugis attended South Mecklenburg High School and graduated in 1975.

Jugis He studied at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he obtained a B.A. in Business Administration in 1979. He studied for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Italy, from 1979 to 1984, and received a Theology degree (S.T.B.) from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1982.

On June 12, 1983, Jugis was ordained to the priesthood by Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.[1] He received a licentiate degree in canon law (J.C.L.) from the Pontifical Gregorian Universityin 1984 and a doctorate in canon law (J.C.D.) from the Catholic University of America in 1993.

After ordination, Jugis was assigned to various parishes around the Charlotte area. In July 1991 he was appointed Judicial Vicar of the diocesan marriage tribunal of the Diocese of Charlotte.[2]

On August 1, 2003, John Paul II appointed Jugis as the fourth bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte . When his appointment as bishop was announced he was pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Monroe, North Carolina, and judicial vicar of the diocesan marriage tribunal.

On October 24, 2003, Jugis received episcopal consecration at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte from Archbishop John Francis Donoghue, with Bishop William George Curlin and Bishop Francis Joseph Gossman serving as co-consecrators.

During the 2004 presidential election, Jugis said that politicians who support legal abortion should be denied Holy Communion unless they publicly recant their views.[3]In 2009, he endorsed a bill opposing gay marriage.[4]

In 2013, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests criticized Jugis and Bishop Michael Francis Burbidge for not warning families in their diocese about Raymond P. Melville, a former Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse in Maine and in Maryland, who had moved to North Carolina.[5][6]

On April 23, 2015, Jugis prevented New Ways Ministry co-founder Sister Jeannine Gramick from offering a talk within his diocese. The diocese's spokesperson claimed that Sister Grammick had previously been judged by the Vatican to be in opposition to Catholic teachings on human sexuality.[7]

On August 17, 2018 Jugis made a statement regarding allegations of sexual misconduct against Church leaders after a grand jury report named 301 Catholic priests who abused children in Pennsylvania. Jugis stated that investigations were going on in order to take appropriate action, and he encouraged people to pray for all victims of sexual abuse.[8]

On December 30, 2019, Jugis released a list of fourteen priests credibly accused of sexual abuse in the diocese since 1972.[9][10][11]

On July 1, 2020, Jugis announced that Patrick Hoare, pastor of St Matthew's church in Savannah, was barred from active ministry on the recommendation of the diocese’s independent Lay Review Board. This stemmed from allegation of sexual abuse in Pennsylvania in the 1990's.[12]