Former Howard University chaplain Father Robert P. Boxie III has been consecrated as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Washington. At just 45 years old, the Louisiana native is officially the youngest Catholic bishop in the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere.

The episcopal ordination took place on Tuesday, July 7, at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. Consecrated by Cardinal Robert McElroy alongside co-consecrators Cardinal Wilton Gregory and Bishop Mark Brennan, Bishop Boxie’s appointment marks a pivotal milestone for the global Church and the Black Catholic community. He is the first new African American Catholic prelate ordained in nearly a decade.

Long before he answered the call to the collar, Bishop Boxie’s path was defined by an array of academic and professional pursuits.

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in 1980 with deep Creole roots, he grew up in a household where faith, family, and community service were standards. He attended Vanderbilt University, where he earned a degree in chemical engineering while simultaneously minoring in music. After a year teaching English in France, Boxie returned to the U.S. and graduated from Harvard Law School in 2007.

He clerked for a federal judge and worked as a corporate associate at a D.C. law firm, seemingly on track for a high-powered career in corporate law. However, his time attending Mass at St. Augustine Catholic Church, the mother church for Black Catholics in the nation’s capital, sparked a deeper spiritual discernment.

In 2010, he left the courtroom behind and entered the seminary, eventually studying at the Pontifical North American College and the Gregorian University in Rome before being ordained a priest in 2016.

For the last six years, Bishop Boxie has been a beloved fixture on the campus of Howard University. Serving as the Catholic chaplain since 2020, he led the campus ministry through the challenges of the pandemic, dramatically expanded its footprint, and inaugurated the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Student Center in 2023, providing Catholic students at the historic HBCU with their first dedicated gathering space in decades.

In addition to his youth, Bishop Boxie represents another historic milestone as the first member of the “Divine Nine” to hold the office of bishop within the Catholic Church. A proud brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, he was initiated into the Kappa Theta Chapter at Vanderbilt University in the Spring of 2000 and is currently an active member of the Mu Lambda Chapter in Washington, D.C.

Bishop Boxie was appointed to his new post by Pope Leo XIV. As he transitions into his episcopal ministry, Bishop Boxie will serve as the Washington Archdiocese’s vicar for cultural communities and synodality. In this role, he will oversee outreach related to cultural diversity, youth, ecumenical relations, and the revitalization of local Black Catholic parishes.

Photo Credit: Archdiocese of Washington