James Thomas McHugh

JAMES THOMAS MCHUGH

Born : January 3, 1932
Deceased : December 10, 2000

Auxiliary Bishop of Newark, 1987-1989
Bishop of Camden, 1989-1998
Bishop of Rockville Centre, 2000-2000

Auxiliary Bishop of Newark	Bishop of Camden
Bishop of Rockville Centre

Official blazon

Origin/meaning

As common in US episcopal heraldry, the arms show the arms of the diocese impaled with the personal arms of the bishop.

Bishop McHugh' s personal arms are based on the symbol of the dove, overshadowing five small circles on a blue background. The dove represents the Holy Spirit and the five small circles represent the cells of life and family units. The model of the dove is taken from the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Newark. This symbol represents the Bishop's pastoral work in the family life movements in the Archdiocese of Newark and at the national and international levels.

Coming forth from the bottom of the impalement are three gold, rugged mountains, representing the mountains of the Potenza region of Italy and honoring the Italian heritage of his mother, Caroline Scavone McHugh. On these mountains is a green trefoil honoring the Irish heritage of the Bishop's father, James Thomas McHugh.

The chief shows a silver crescent, from the arms of the Archdiocese of Newark. The crescent is flanked on one side by a silver fleur-de-lis to honor the former Archbishops of Newark, Thomas Boland and Peter Gerety, as well as to signify the Dominican Order, which operates the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, from which the Bishop received his doctorate in Sacred Theology. On the other side, is a silver ermine spot, taken from the arms of Archbishop Theodore Edgar McCarrick, whom Bishop McHugh served as an Auxiliary Bishop in Newark and who himself had taken the charge from the arms of the late Terence Cardinal Cooke, with whom Bishop McHugh also worked for many years.

For his motto, Bishop McHugh selected the Latin phrase, "Quid retribuam Domino" from Psalm 116:12, which means, "What shall I return to the Lord." In this phrase, Bishop McHugh expressed his goal in life, to return to the Lord all that he can for all that he has been given by God, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

The achievement is completed with the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See, of March 1969, confirmed in March 2001.