Diocesan News

Future Bishop Was Ordained in Queens

Four men were ordained priests for the Passionists’ Order by Bishop Francis J. Mugavero on May 16, 1975, at 7 p.m., at Immaculate Conception Monastery, Jamaica.

They were Henry Kavanagh, Frederick J. Schneider, Thomas D. Stanton, and future Bishop Neil Tiedemann.

Father Tiedemann was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Tiedemann of Franklin Square, L.I. He attended the Passionists’ former Holy Cross H.S. Seminary, Dunkirk, N.Y.; Holy Family Seminary, West Hartford, Conn.; LaSalle University in Philadelphia, and earned masters’ degrees in theology and divinity at St. John’s University, Jamaica.

As a seminarian, he was involved in outreach efforts with Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens (CCBQ) near St. Barbara Church, Bushwick.

After ordination he studied Spanish in Bolivia and then was assigned to Immaculate Conception parish, Jamaica, where he worked in the local Catholic Charities Office.