His Excellency, The Most Reverend Joseph Lawson E. Howze |
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Bishop Emeritus of Biloxi | |
Archdiocese | Mobile |
Diocese | Biloxi |
Appointed | March 8, 1977 |
Installed | June 6, 1977 |
Term ended | May 15, 2001 |
Predecessor | First Bishop |
Successor | Thomas John Rodi |
Orders | |
Ordination | May 7, 1959 |
Consecration | January 28, 1973 by Luigi Raimondi, Harold Robert Perry, and Joseph Bernard Brunini |
Personal details | |
Born |
Daphne, Alabama |
August 30, 1923
Previous post | Auxiliary Bishop of Natchez-Jackson |
Motto | Unity of God’s people |
Styles of Joseph Lawson E. Howze |
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Reference style | |
Spoken style | Your Excellency |
Religious style | Bishop |
Joseph Lawson E. Howze (born August 30, 1923) is an African-American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Biloxi from 1977 to 2001.
Howze was born in Daphne, Alabama. He is the oldest of four children born to Albert Otis Howze Sr. and Helen Lawson Howze. His mother died when he was five. He has six siblings in total. He grew up with neighbors who were Catholic and attributes his Catholicism to that influence. He attended kindergarten at Most Pure Heart of Mary School in Mobile. He was later transferred to the segregated public schools of Mobile, graduating from Mobile County Secondary School in 1944. Howze originally aspired to become a doctor and studied chemistry, biology, and physics. He graduated from Alabama State Branch Junior College in 1946. In 1948 he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Alabama State University. He converted to Catholicism, being fully accepted at age twenty four, taking the name Joseph. He taught science in the public school system and was later hired to teach at St. Monica School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1952.