Bishop Robert M. Coerver, S.T.L., M.S.
Bishop Robert Coerver, was appointed as the third Bishop of the Diocese of Lubbock, Texas on September 27, 2016. Bishop Coerver, succeeded Most Rev. Plácido Rodríguez, CMF, was ordained a bishop and installed as Bishop of Lubbock on November 21, 2016 at Christ the King Cathedral in Lubbock. Robert Coerver, a native of Dallas, was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Dallas on June 27, 1980. He has served as Assistant Pastor at Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Dallas and at Saint Elizabeth Seton Parish in Plano. For 11 years he served as Director of Spiritual Formation at Holy Trinity Seminary on the campus of the University of Dallas. He served as spirituality consultant to programs of the diocese in 1996. In July of 1997 he was appointed Director of the Office of Sacramental Life for the Diocese of Dallas, and was named Director of Priestly Life and Ministry in 2003. In December 2004 Pope John Paul II named Father Coerver a Prelate of Honor with the title “Monsignor." In 2005 Monsignor Coerver began serving as Pastoral Administrator and in 2006 as Pastor at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Rockwall Texas. In July 2010, Monsignor Coerver began serving as Pastor of St. Rita Parish in Dallas. Monsignor Coerver earned a Licentiate in Spiritual Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a Master’s Degree in Counseling and Guidance from Texas A & M University—Commerce, formerly East Texas State University. He has served as a member and Chairperson of the Presbyteral Council of the Diocese of Dallas since 2008.
Coat of Arms
For his Personal Arms, seen in the dexter impalement right side of the design, Bishop Coerver adopted symbolic elements inspired in large part by his friend and architect, R. Andrew Bennett, all elements reflecting his life and heritage as well as his call to the fullness of the Holy Priesthood as Bishop of Lubbock. The Arms are composed of several significant elements. Prime among them, the blue wavy bar cutting across the right half of the blazon diagonally from left to right. Representing clearly a river, this evokes the Arms of the Diocese of Dallas where the Bishop spent most of his life and ministry. The river, which is white in the Arms of Dallas, symbolizes the Trinity River which flows through the heart of the city. Here the river is blue, calling to mind not only Our Lady but also his first Pastorate at Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Rockwall, Texas. Within the river rest three roses signifying not only the Most Blessed Trinity but also Saint Rita, patroness of the parish His Excellency served as Pastor until called to his new ministry in Lubbock. On the top right hand corner of the blazon, a red Chi-Rho. Greek letters which have since antiquity represented Christ, it’s a symbol used by the Bishop as a significant charge for his priestly ordination. To the lower left on a green field, a gold carpenter’s square, signifying woodworking, which belongs to the family’s heritage on his father’s side. The green field itself represents his Irish heritage, namely his mother’s side of the family. For his Motto, Bishop Coerver adopted the Latin phrase Suscipe Domine. Taken from the last meditation of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola and forming part of what is known as his Prayer of Self-Offering, it translates, “Take Lord, receive.” Completed with external ornaments of a gold processional Cross, standing behind the blazon, it bears the Trinitarian symbol of interlaced red knots, here symbolizing also Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas, one of the Bishop’s almae matres, on whose faculty he served for eleven years; and a pontifical hat, a galero, with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green.
