Posted August 14, 2008





By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer

PHILADELPHIA – Father Joseph L. Logrip, pastor of SS. Philip and James Parish in Exton, Chester County, has been named regional vicar for the Philadelphia-North vicariate, effective Sept. 15.

Cardinal Justin Rigali announced the appointment on Friday, Aug. 8.

As regional vicar, Father Logrip succeeds Bishop-elect Herbert A. Bevard who, on Sept. 3, will be installed as Bishop of the Diocese of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Father Logrip said he is honored by the appointment, adding, “I will certainly try to do my very best.” The appointment, he said, also places honor on the “innumerable, wonderful people” of the parishes in which he has served.

He said he looks forward to working with the priests of the vicariate and hopes to bring to the post leadership and friendship as together they build up the fraternity of the priesthood “so in that solidarity we continue to lead the people.”

Father Logrip has also received a new pastorate – Mother of spanine Grace Parish in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia. “I ask their prayers and their patience,” he said of his new parishioners. “And I thank the pastors who have preceded me for their hard and diligent work.” Father Logrip is no stranger to the Philadelphia-North vicariate. From 1994 to 2000, he served as pastor of Mater Dolorosa Parish in the Frankford section of the city. There, he said he found hard-working people who were committed to the Church and to their neighborhood.

Another goal of the new vicar is to help the priests and parishioners entrusted to his care to collaborate with the Mayor of Philadelphia to continue to address the needs of the area, in particular those related to education and violence.

A native of Norristown, Father Logrip, 63, is the second of three children of the late Joseph and Margaret Logrip. “My mother and father taught us to work and to pray and to always do your best,” he said.

His siblings are Sister Margaret Logrip, I.H.M., a music teacher at St. Pius X School in Broomall; and Terry Logrip, a resident at spanine Providence Village in Springfield, an archdiocesan-operated facility for women with developmental disabilities. It is Terry who is “the saint of our family,” her brother said.

Father Logrip graduated from Holy Saviour School in Norristown in 1959 and from Bishop Kenrick High School, also in Norristown, in 1963.

He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in philosophy and a master’s degree in religious studies.

He was ordained by Cardinal John Krol on May 20, 1972, at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.

Assignments have also included parochial vicar of St. Ignatius of Antioch Parish, Yardley; St. Francis of Assisi, Norristown and St. Monica in Philadelphia; St. Rose of Lima, North Wales and St. Anthony of Padua, Chester. He is also a former pastor of Immaculate Conception B.V.M., Levittown.

Father Logrip has served as a teacher at his alma mater, Bishop Kenrick High School, and at Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor.

He currently serves as the chairman of the archdiocesan Interparochial Cooperation Commission and as a member of the archdiocesan College of Consultors and Council of Priests.

Father Logrip has also served as a chaplain for St. Gabriel’s Hall in Audubon, Montgomery County and the Christian Brothers Faculty House. He was also a priest vocation coordinator for Bucks County.

In addition, he has served as an adjunct professor of Scripture at St. Charles Seminary.

The new vicar asks the present seminarians of St. Charles to join him in praying for vocations from the families of Philadelphia-North.

Father Joseph C. Dieckhaus, formerly an assistant judicial vicar in the archdiocesan Metropolitan Tribunal and chaplain at the Convent of spanine Love in Philadelphia, will succeed Father Logrip as pastor of SS. Philip and James Parish on Sept. 15.

Father Logrip was named parochial administrator of SS. Philip and James in January 2007 and pastor there in April of that year. He called the 18 months he served there “paradise.”

Succeeding Bishop-elect Bevard as pastor of St. Athanasius Parish on Sept. 2 is Father Joseph F. Okonski, currently the pastor of St. Ignatius of Loyola and Our Mother of Sorrows parishes in West Philadelphia. [See page 5 for additional clerical changes.]

The outgoing and incoming vicars of Philadelphia-North were classmates at St. Charles Seminary. “I know firsthand the wonderful priestly job that he has done,” Father Logrip said of Bishop-elect Bevard. “I thank him for that.”

CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may be reached at (215) 587-2468 or cchicoin@adphila.org.