James F. Checchio
James Francis Checchio was born April 21, 1966, in Camden, New Jersey. He attended Paul VI High School and the University of Scranton, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Camden on June 20, 1992. A canonist, he earned a doctorate in canon law from the Angelicum in Rome and also holds an MBA. His early ministry in Camden included parish assignments and service as priest-secretary to Bishop James McHugh.
Checchio spent roughly a decade in Rome as rector of the Pontifical North American College, the U.S. seminary in Rome (2006–2016), forming a generation of American priests. On March 8, 2016, Pope Francis appointed him the fifth Bishop of Metuchen, New Jersey; he was ordained a bishop May 3, 2016, and led Metuchen for nine years, strengthening the diocese's abuse record-keeping and law-enforcement referrals.
On September 24, 2025, Pope Leo XIV appointed Checchio Coadjutor Archbishop of New Orleans; he received a Mass of Welcome at St. Louis Cathedral on November 18, 2025. When Pope Leo accepted Archbishop Gregory Aymond's resignation on February 11, 2026, Checchio became the 15th Archbishop of New Orleans, and he received the pallium at St. Peter's on June 29, 2026. He inherits an archdiocese still working through a Chapter 11 clergy-abuse bankruptcy.
The crux of Checchio's record is his nine years in Metuchen, and there his implementation of Traditionis Custodes was restrictive-but-preserving rather than abolitionist. He ended the regularly scheduled Traditional Latin Mass at Corpus Christi parish in South River effective Advent 2022 — consistent with the motu proprio's directive that the old rite not be celebrated in parish churches. But he did not abolish the TLM in the diocese: it continued at the Shrine Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in Raritan, a dedicated non-parochial shrine served by the Oratorians, where the Sunday sung Latin Mass remains. That is the more moderate, tradition-tolerant reading of the rules — consolidate the old rite into a designated non-parish site rather than end it.
In New Orleans the premise of a hostile landscape does not hold. Archbishop Aymond had taken a notably permissive line in 2021, keeping priests' faculties and suppressing no TLMs; the old rite continues robustly — daily at St. Patrick's downtown and at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel community on the Northshore, which describes itself as continuing 'with the blessing of the Archdiocese.' As of mid-2026 Checchio has left that permissive inheritance untouched — an archdiocesan spokesperson stated in May 2026 that he had 'not issued any formal statements on the Latin Mass' — and he has shown personal warmth toward the traditional orbit, visiting the cloistered Covington Carmel and reportedly planning to attend a Northshore Latin Mass.
The honest verdict is mixed, leaning cautiously friendly: not a champion, but not a suppressor. He is a canonist who follows Rome's rules — willing to remove a TLM from a parish church when the letter of the law directs it — while keeping the old rite alive at dedicated sites and treating its communities pastorally. The open question for New Orleans is whether he preserves the generous landscape he inherited from Aymond or eventually imports the more restrictive parish-removal template he used in Metuchen.