Missionaries of the Sacred

This month, Bishop Norbert Strotmann, M.S.C., the first Bishop of the Diocese of Chosica (Lima-Este, Peru), will receive two honorary doctoral degrees. On May 16, Mr. Anthony Cernera, Ph.D., President of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT, will award Bishop Strotmann the degree of ‘Doctor in Humane Letters’ in recognition of his contributions as “an educator, a theological dean and an author.” The next weekend, Bishop Strotmann was invited by the Rev. Mark Cregan, C.S.C., J.D., President of Stonehill College in North Easton, MA, to receive an honorary Doctorate of Theology in recognition of his contributions as an academic and as a pastor. Rev. Cregan noted that Bishop Strotmann integrates his academic research in sociology and pastoral theology into his response to the challenges of poverty facing the people he serves, for instance, by founding several medical centers in the diocese that offer both primary care and preventative services.

The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart USA Province would like to congratulate Bishop Strotmann on these well-deserved honors, his dedicated service to the Church, and his extraordinary efforts to bring the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to others. 

Bishop Strotmann is a member of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart who was born in Germany. In 1972, when he was a deacon, he went to Peru, where he was ordained a priest on November 3, 1973. He received his Doctorate in Sacred Theology in 1974 from the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria and a Masters in Sociology in 1981 from the University of Bielefeld in Germany.  He was consecrated bishop by Pope John Paul in 1993. In 1997, he was named bishop of the newly created Diocese of Chosica (Lima Este, Peru), which serves an impoverished, urban slum population of close to two million people.