Retired Bishop Edward T. Hughes of Metuchen, known as a gentle shepherd and a staunch advocate for pro-life issues and racial harmony, died of cancer Dec. 25 in St. Peter’s University Hospital, New Brunswick, at age 92. The second Bishop of Metuchen, who led the new diocese through many of its formative years, he served the Catholic community in Middlesex, Somerset, Hunterdon and Warren Counties well beyond his retirement in 1997.

Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski will receive the body of Bishop Hughes in the Cathedral of St. Francis, 32 Elm Avenue, Metuchen, Jan. 3 at 2 p.m.; public visitation will follow until 7 p.m. A Mass of Commemoration will be celebrated at 7:30 p.m. with Bishop Bootkoski as principal celebrant and Father Sean G. Winters as homilist. 

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place in the cathedral on Jan. 4 at 11 a.m. with Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick as principal celebrant and Father Charles T. O’Connor as homilist. Interment will follow on the Cathedral grounds.

Edward Thomas Hughes was born in Lansdowne, Pa. on Nov. 13, 1920, the second son of Charles Valentine Hughes and Kathryn Mingey. After attending St. Philomena Parochial School and West Philadelphia Catholic High School, he entered St. Charles Seminary, Wynnewood, Pa., in 1938. Edward Hughes was ordained to the priesthood May 31, 1947, by Bishop Hugh Lamb in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, Philadelphia. 

Father Hughes’ career as teacher and professor included positions as vice-rector at St. Charles Seminary and as Philadelphia Archdiocesan superintendent of schools, overseeing over one quarter million students. He earned a master’s degree in American History from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1954.  

Pope Paul VI appointed then-Monsignor Hughes as auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia in 1976 and he was ordained bishop in SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral July 21 by Cardinal John Krol. On Dec. 16, 1986, Pope John Paul II named him the second bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen, succeeding then-Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick.  

“I felt he was a holy man who would bring a new dimension to the Church of Metuchen,” now-Cardinal McCarrick said in a statement. “Bishop Hughes gave the people a real sense of holiness and an ideal to strive for, the ideal of service and the ideal of living in the presence of God. He knew that he was called to bring the Holy Spirit to the lives of people and he did it as long as he was physically able to do so.” 

Bishop Paul G. Bootkoski expressed his admiration of his predecessor’s outspoken defense of human life, advocacy against racism and bigotry, and indefatigable presence despite advancing age and infirmity.  “[Hughes’] legacy to the people of Metuchen will be his uncompromising witness, given with gentleness but never wavering,” Bootkoski declared. 

Before his mandatory retirement in 1997, Bishop Hughes instituted two Masses which reflected both his stance against racism and for the sanctity of life from conception to natural death: the annual Racial Harmony Mass, celebrated on the Sunday before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and the Respect Life Mass scheduled to coincide with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade abortion decision. At the celebration marking his 65 years in ministry this past May, Hughes revealed his most satisfying accomplishment: the Maria Regina Residence, a home for retired priests that he opened in 1989 in the Somerset section of Franklin.


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