Joseph Anthony Galante (July 2, 1938 – May 25, 2019) was an American prelate of the Catholic Church who served as bishop of the Latin Church diocese of Camden in New Jersey from 2004 to 2013. He previously held several positions as a bishop in Texas from 1992 to 2004, after serving in the Roman Curia as undersecretary of the Congregation for Religious from 1986 to 1992.

Biography

Early life

Joseph Galante was born on July 2, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Saint Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia and St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1960. Galante was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 16, 1964. At the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, he earned his Doctor of Canon Law degree and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, he received a Master of Spiritual Theology degree. Galante was named undersecretary of the Congregation for Religious in December 1986.

Bishop in Texas

Galante held three positions in Texas as bishop:

Bishop of Camden

Galante was appointed bishop of Camden by John Paul II on March 23, 2004 and installed on April 30, 2004. On April 2, 2008, Galante announced large-scale mergers and closings of half of the parishes in the Diocese of Camden and was implicated three months later in a scandal by a New York Post article titled A Deal with the Devil, which revealed that Raffaello Follieri had bought Galante's beach house for $400,000 in 2007 shortly after Galante began the study that resulted in this 2008 announcement of the parish mergers and closings. In September 2008, Follieri pleaded guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering charges which arose from his defrauding investors through false and misleading statements, and received a 4 1/2-year prison sentence. The beach house was sold in 2010 for $310,000. Galante and Burkle were never charged with any crimes in relation to the scandal. In January 2011, parishioners of the closed St Mary's Parish in Malaga, New Jersey, re-entered the church and began an around-the-clock vigil that attracted regional and national media attention. In a 2011 letter to Catholics in his diocese, Galante announced that he was suffering from chronic kidney disease caused by diabetes, but indicated that he could continue to serve as bishop of Camden.

Retirement and legacy

In 2012, Galante asked the pope to be allowed to resign for health reasons; he served until his resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI on January 8, 2013. Galante died on May 25, 2019, at Shore Medical Center in Somers Point, New Jersey, from a long illness.