DIOCESE OF BELLEVILLE, ILLINOIS

       Bishop Edward K. Braxton was a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago when he was appointed to the Episcopacy by Pope John Paul II on March 28, 1995. He was ordained a Bishop on May 17, 1995. Braxton was installed as Bishop of Lake Charles February 21, 2001and installed as Bishop of Belleville on June 22, 2005 at the Cathedral of Saint Peter.

He is Chairman of the NCCB Committee for the American College of the University of Louvain. He is a member of NCCB's Committees on Education, Science and Human Values, and Scripture Translation. He serves as the Convenor of the African American Catholic Bishops.

He is a pastoral theologian, who earned his MA and S.T.L. from St. Mary of the Lake Seminary, Mundelein, Illinois and whose Ph.D. in Religious Studies and S.T.D. in systematic theology are from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

The Bishop, a native of Chicago, has long been involved in interracial and intercultural dialogue. He has lectured in major cities and townships of South Africa during their annual "winter school." His participation in Jewish-Christian dialogue has taken him to Israel several times. Bishop Braxton's personal interest in the impact of the arts (especially film, television, music, architecture, sculpture, and painting) on religion in contemporary culture is a key factor in his current research.

In August 1997, the Bishop addressed the Bishops of the United States who attended the National Black Catholic Congress on the topic "Take Into account Various Situations and Cultures: Evangelization and African-Americans."

The Bishop's writings have appeared in the Harvard Theological Review, Theological Studies, Louvain Studies, Irish Theological Quarterly, The New Catholic Encyclopedia, Origins, Commonwealth, America, The National Catholic Reporter, and other journals.