Louis A. DeSimone

Louis Anthony DeSimone (born February 21, 1922) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia from 1981 to 1997.

DeSimone was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and raised in Bridgeport. He has two brothers, Russell and Salvatore, both of whom also chose ecclesiastical careers; the former is an Augustinian professor at the Pontifical Lateran University and the latter (d. 1989) was a pastor in New Jersey. He attended Bridgeport High School and Villanova University before becoming a sergeant in the Army during World War II, serving for two years in Italy with the Fifth Army Headquarters. Upon his return to the United States, DeSimone entered St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, and was ordained to the priesthood by on May 10, 1952.

He then taught at St. Thomas More High School in Philadelphia, as well as serving as assistant pastor at St. Donato Parish in Philadelphia and at Ss. Cosmas and Damian Parish in Conshohocken. He became a member of the archdiocesan Executive Committee of the Catholic Charities Appeal in 1961, pastor of Ss. Cosmas and Damian Parish in 1968, and director of Catholic Relief Services in 1971. In 1975, DeSimone was made chairman of the Heritage Group Committee for the forty-first International Eucharistic Congress, which was held in Philadelphia in August 1976. He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness during that same year. John Cardinal Krol later named him coordinator of the Italian Earthquake Relief Fund for Friuli, his work for which earned him the Commendatore al Merito della Repubblica Italiana from the Italian government.