The Most Rev. Thomas J. Tobin, right, bishop of Providence, talks about the appointment of Monsignor Robert C. Evans as auxiliary bishop of Providence. Monsignor Evans has served in many capacities in the Diocese of Providence and is pastor at St. Philip Catholic Church in Greenville.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

PROVIDENCE –– Monsignor Robert C. Evans, who is no stranger either to Rome or to his fellow priests in Rhode Island, has been named by Pope Benedict XVI to become the new auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence.

Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, who said he has been a friend of the bishop-elect for 40 years, relayed the news Thursday to diocesan priests attending a three-day retreat on Cape Cod.

Though born in Moultrie, Ga., the 62-year-old Evans has been a Rhode Islander since his parents moved to Providence when he was 1. He has held a variety of assignments since his ordination to the priesthood in 1973 — most notably 17 years working inside the chancery in posts ranging from secretary to chancellor, four years running a sabbatical program for English-speaking priests in Rome, and 1½ years working for the papal nuncio in Washington.

For the last 2½ years he’s been pastor of St. Philip Catholic Church in Greenville, a large parish with 3,000 families, where he will continue to serve, until Bishop Tobin decides otherwise, even after his ordination as bishop around the end of the year.

“When I returned to Rhode Island 2½ years ago after working elsewhere, I thought it was finally safe to return” the bishop-elect quipped at a Thursday afternoon news conference. “Obviously the good Lord had other plans for me.”

He said that having worked as a secretary to former diocesan Bishop Louis E. Gelineau and then working with his successor, Bishop Robert E. Mulvee, “I am realistic about the challenges” of serving as an auxiliary bishop as well as “the joys and burdens.”

“I believe what I have to offer is a priestly heart,” he said. “We believe that the call to the priesthood is a vocation. God in Jesus Christ has set his mind and heart on those who have been called to the priesthood.”

Bishop Tobin said he first met the bishop-elect 40 years ago while traveling aboard the Michelangelo, which was taking young seminarians from the United States to Italy to begin classes at the North American College in Rome. He said he thinks they initially met at one of the midnight buffets and have been friends ever since.

However, when the time came for ordination to the priesthood, the two men took slightly different paths. Evans stayed in Rome to be ordained at St. Peter’s Basilica, while Tobin went back to his home diocese of Pittsburgh to be ordained there.

Unlike a coadjutor bishop who has the right to automatic succession if the primary bishop resigns or dies, an auxiliary serves primarily as an assistant, taking on any assignments given to him by the bishop but with no inherent right to step in if the “ordinary” bishop leaves. In the past, those assignments have included helping to oversee the diocese’s social ministry, looking after priestly formation, or advising the bishop on medical ethics. The last auxiliary bishop to serve in Rhode Island was Bishop Robert McManus, who left the post in 2004 to become bishop of Worcester.

Bishop Tobin said Thursday that Evans’ assignments are still undecided, though they will certainly include performing Confirmations and carrying on in his role as pastor at St. Philip’s.

Asked about the challenges he sees facing the diocese, the bishop-elect said one very large one is carrying on the work of New Evangelization that Pope John Paul II called for several years ago and which Bishop Tobin is attempting to implement in Rhode Island.

“There are so many wonderful Catholic families out there who have grown lukewarm in the faith, and we need to invite them back to experience it,” he said. “I see in my own parish we have wonderful attendance at Mass but we could have many more people attending. We would like to rekindle the faith. And Catholic schools are always a priority. They are a wonderful educational tool that not only inform but form people morally and spiritually.”

The bishop-elect is the son of Lolita Baldisseri, who grew up on Federal Hill, and the late Ivey Evans, who met and married while Evans’ father was a Marine in the Panama Canal Zone. The couple moved briefly to Georgia, where the bishop-elect was born, before moving as a family to Rhode Island in 1948.

In addition to his high-level diocesan administrative roles, Evans once served as a chaplain at Roger Williams and Rhode Island hospitals, Rhode Island College and Roger Williams University and has served in such parishes as St. Margaret’s in Rumford, St. Anthony in Woonsocket, St. Joan of Arc in Cumberland, Our Lady of Mercy in East Greenwich, St. Pius X in Westerly and Holy Angels in Barrington.

He received advanced degrees from Gregorian University in Rome in 1972 and a master’s degree in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in 1973. He also received a licentiate in canon law in 1989 from Gregorian University.

rdujardi@projo.com