Mark Eckman
Mark Anthony Eckman was born in Pittsburgh on February 9, 1959, the son of Francis and Clarissa Eckman, and grew up in Bethel Park in the city's South Hills. He attended Saint Valentine Elementary School and the former South Hills Catholic High School in Mount Lebanon, now Seton LaSalle Catholic High School, then entered priestly formation at Saint Paul Seminary in East Carnegie. He graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and received a Master of Divinity degree from Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on May 11, 1985.
His priesthood was spent almost entirely in the South Hills: parochial vicar at five parishes, chaplain at Seton LaSalle and at the DePaul School for Hearing and Speech, pastor at three parishes and administrator of two more. From July 15, 2013 until July 1, 2020 he was episcopal vicar for clergy personnel. He then administered the parishes of Saint Thomas More and Saint John Capistran as they merged into Resurrection Parish, becoming its pastor on January 4, 2021. Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop of Pittsburgh on November 5, 2021; he was ordained a bishop on January 11, 2022, and served as vicar general and general secretary.
On June 4, 2025, Pope Leo XIV accepted the resignation of Bishop David Zubik, who had turned 75 the previous September, and appointed Eckman, his own auxiliary, as his successor. Eckman was installed as the thirteenth Bishop of Pittsburgh on July 14, 2025, at Saint Paul Cathedral in Oakland, taking as his motto "To serve in faith and charity." Devoted to his extended family, he photographs mountains, hikes and skis.
- 2025-07-14Eckman was installed as the 13th Bishop of Pittsburgh at Saint Paul Cathedral, succeeding Bishop David Zubik, whose resignation Pope Leo XIV had accepted on June 4, 2025. The installation, not the June appointment, is the possession date for this tenure. ↗
- 2026-08-07In a letter to Mary, Queen of Saints Parish, Aliquippa, Eckman announced that he would not petition the Vatican for continued permission for the Traditional Latin Mass at Saint Titus Church, writing that the permission was only ever meant to be temporary and that the faithful were expected to grow in appreciation of the post-conciliar liturgy. He directed those who wished to continue attending the 1962 Missal to Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish, Brighton Heights, served by the Institute of Christ the King. ↗
- 2026-09-04The last diocesan Traditional Latin Mass in Pittsburgh was celebrated at Saint Titus Church, ending diocesan-clergy provision of the 1962 Missal in the diocese. The Institute of Christ the King parish at Most Precious Blood of Jesus continued, so the form itself was not extinguished in the diocese. ↗
- 2026-10-06The diocese issued a statement warning the faithful that a Traditional Latin Mass announced at the privately owned Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel in Conway, Pennsylvania, had not been submitted to Bishop Eckman for review or approval, that neither the chapel nor the celebrations had diocesan authorisation, and that attendance did not fulfil the Sunday obligation. ↗
Mark Eckman inherited a diocese in which the old Mass already lived on a narrow footing. Under his predecessor, Bishop Zubik, the diocesan Traditional Latin Masses had been suspended except at Most Precious Blood of Jesus, the Institute of Christ the King personal parish in Brighton Heights, while one diocesan celebration survived at Saint Titus Church in Aliquippa, in Mary, Queen of Saints Parish, under a Vatican permission extended in 2024. When Eckman was installed in July 2025, that permission still had time to run, and nothing in his first year in office disturbed it.
The governing act of his own came in August 2026. In a letter dated August 7, 2026, to Mary, Queen of Saints Parish, Eckman wrote that the permission to celebrate according to the older rite in a parish church was only ever meant to be temporary, that the Holy See expected the faithful to be brought toward the post-conciliar rite, and that rather than requesting another extension he would allow the existing authorisation to lapse when its two-year term ended. The last diocesan Traditional Latin Mass was celebrated on Friday, September 4, 2026. That is a deliberate choice by a bishop who had the power to ask Rome for more time and chose not to, and it is the act on which this verdict rests.
The verdict is reduced, not suppressed, and the distinction matters. Eckman did not forbid the 1962 Missal in his diocese: he directed the Saint Titus faithful to Most Precious Blood of Jesus Parish, where priests of the Institute of Christ the King continue to celebrate the older liturgy, and the diocese's own October 2026 warning about an unauthorised private chapel in Conway shows him policing unauthorised celebrations rather than closing the society parish. What ended was the diocesan provision itself, one site to none, and with it the only Traditional Mass celebrated by diocesan clergy in Pittsburgh.