Pope Leo XIV Selects Former Howard Priest As Youngest Bishop

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

Pope Leo XIV recently selected the Rev. Robert P. Boxie III as one of two auxiliary bishops of the Archdiocese of Washington. The second new bishop is Rev. Gary R. Studniewski.

Bishop Boxie is the nation’s youngest Catholic bishop at age 45 and the newest African American Catholic bishop. He most recently served as the Catholic chaplain at Howard University, according to a news release from The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

Bishop Studniewski, 69, has served as pastor of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Washington, D.C.

Bishop Boxie is from Lake Charles, La. He earned an undergraduate degree in engineering at Vanderbilt, and a law degree at Harvard. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, a licentiate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 25, 2016.

“The church was an extension of our home,” Bishop Boxie said in a recent interview in Catholic Standard about a week after he was ordained as an auxiliary bishop of Washington on July 7, 2026 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“Faith and church and the parish and prayer and community service were a given and standards in our house,” he explained.

It “was more than a church,” the new bishop said of his hometown parish. “It was a center for the African American community in southwest Louisiana.

The school at Sacred Heart was extremely important… Black folks value education, and Sacred Heart was giving a top-notch education for African Americans.”

Bishop Boxie explained how he pivoted from Harvard Law School to working as an attorney in the Washington area, first as a law clerk at a federal court in Greenbelt, Md., and later as an associate at a D.C. law firm. “I thought that truth could be pursued in law and policy… I realized that was not the case (for me). I was searching for something more, something deeper. It brought me back to my faith, and it brought me back to God.”

“All along, he said, God “was leading me toward Him.”

His father worked as an operator at a local refinery and his mother worked in the accounting department for a chemical plant.

While serving as Howard’s Catholic chaplain, Boxie said in Howard’s Dig magazine, that he wanted students to know that they can have fun while practicing their faith. The Howard ministry hosts weekly Bible studies, fellowship nights, dinners, daily Masses at the Bowman Center, and a Sunday Mass in Howard’s Frederick Douglass Hall. It also offers retreats, leads community service, and connects with other students and faith-based organizations across the country. Additionally, they also host social activities. 

“Many people think that Catholicism is European or a ‘white church,’ but that is not true, and it ignores facts and history,” Boxie said.

“Catholicism arrived in Africa before it went to Europe.  And Black Catholics helped to shape the church as we know it today, in figures like St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Athanasius, St. Monica, Origen, and Tertullian, among many others.  We have worked inside and outside our ministry to dispel those false narratives and educate students about their faith and the role Black Catholics have played in the history of Christianity and the Catholic Church.  Our mission is to form the next generation of Black Catholic leaders who impact not only the church but also society at large.”