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Robert J. Coyle
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Robert J. Coyle

Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre
Auxiliary Bishop
1964
1991
Ordained
2013
Consecrated Bishop
Rockville Centre
Diocese
United States
Country
The Life

Robert J. Coyle was born on September 23, 1964, in Brooklyn, New York, to Robert and Kathryn Coyle, and grew up on Long Island. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in economics from Fordham University in 1986, and studied at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington, earning a Master of Divinity in 1991 and a Master of Arts in theology in 1998. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Rockville Centre on May 25, 1991, by Bishop John R. McGann at St. Agnes Cathedral.

Coyle was commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy on June 3, 1988, and served 24 and a half years on active and reserve duty before retiring from the Naval Reserve on January 1, 2013. As a Navy Reserve chaplain he was associate pastor at St. Dominic in Oyster Bay and St. Patrick in Glen Cove, then served on active duty from 1999 to 2009, with the 3rd Marine Division on Okinawa, in the Middle East in Operations Southern Watch and Iraqi Freedom, and aboard two aircraft carriers. He was promoted to commander in 2005 and named a monsignor in 2008.

Pope Benedict XVI named him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services on February 11, 2013, and he was ordained a bishop on April 25, 2013, serving as episcopal vicar for the eastern United States. Pope Francis transferred him to Rockville Centre as an auxiliary bishop on February 20, 2018, and he began his ministry on Long Island on April 2, 2018, assisting Bishop John Barres.

Major Works & Initiatives
Naval chaplaincy
Navy chaplain for 24.5 years on active and reserve duty, 1988-2013, including deployments to the Middle East and service aboard two aircraft carriers.
Military Services auxiliary episcopate
Auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, 2013-2018, as episcopal vicar for the eastern half of the United States, before transfer to Rockville Centre.
The Old Mass, See by See
Rockville Centre2018-02-20 – presentauxiliaryNo act of his own
What he inheritedCoyle was transferred to Rockville Centre as auxiliary bishop on February 20, 2018, before Traditionis custodes, but no pre-TC governing act of his on the older Mass was found either. No governing act of his own on the 1962 Missal in the Traditionis custodes era was found: no authorization, decree, dispensation sought, or appointment sustaining the older Mass signed by him was located in diocesan news, USCCB releases, or reputable reporting searched 2026-10-24. Acts of the diocesan ordinary are the ordinary's, not an auxiliary's, and are never credited to him here.
Since the SSPX decree of 2 July 2026: No statement of his own concerning the Society of St. Pius X in 2026 was found.
Reviewed 2026-10-24Confidence: medium
Domus Dei’s Verdict
The Bishop & the Mass of Ages
No record of a governing act

No governing act of Coyle's own on the 1962 Missal was found. Searching on October 24, 2026, across diocesan news, USCCB material, and reputable reporting returned no authorization, decree, dispensation, or appointment sustaining the older Mass signed by him, in either his Military Services auxiliary tenure or his Rockville Centre tenure, and no statement of his on the older liturgy at all. Under the project rules that absence is no_record, not a judgment about his views.

The older Mass provision on Long Island belongs to the diocesan ordinary, Bishop John Barres, not to an auxiliary. A pre-TC diocesan plan in 2019 reorganized the Tridentine Mass schedule across the vicariates while keeping the same number of Masses in each, but that plan was the diocese's under Barres, it predates Traditionis custodes, and no part of it is signed by or attributed to Coyle, so it is not carried as his act.

No site count is asserted for Coyle, because an auxiliary holds no see whose sites could be counted as his, and no society, Roman dispensation, or 2026 statement on the Society of St. Pius X of his own was found. Only his Rockville Centre auxiliary tenure is carried here, as tasked; his Military Services auxiliary tenure is summarized in the biography but carries no separate TC block, since the task scopes each man to his home-diocese auxiliary tenure.

References & Further Reading
1.
Pope Francis Names Auxiliary Bishop of the Military Services as Auxiliary Bishop of Rockville Centre — United States Conference of Catholic Bishops · usccb.org · 2018Born September 23, 1964, Brooklyn; Fordham economics 1986; Immaculate Conception MDiv and MA theology 1991; ordained May 25, 1991, by Bishop McGann; Navy service 1988-2013; AMS auxiliary named February 11, 2013, ordained April 25, 2013; transfer to Rockville Centre publicized February 20, 2018.
2.
Bishop Robert Coyle returns to Long Island as Rockville Centre auxiliary — Catholic News Agency · catholicnewsagency.com · 2018Transfer to Rockville Centre February 20, 2018; ministry on Long Island to begin April 2, 2018; born September 23, 1964, Brooklyn; ordained Rockville Centre priest May 25, 1991; AMS auxiliary 2013 as episcopal vicar for the eastern United States.
3.
On Long Island, Changes to Traditional Mass Schedule Announced — Society of St. Hugh of Cluny · sthughofcluny.org · 20192019 Diocese of Rockville Centre Tridentine Mass plan, announced by Bishop Barres, reorganizing schedules while maintaining the same number of Masses in each vicariate. Pre-TC and the ordinary's plan, not Coyle's act; cited as context only.
Portrait: Mass Communication Specialist Seaman John M. Drew, U.S. Navy / Wikimedia Commons
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