About Bishop Robert

His Grace, The Most Rev. Robert M. Pipta, (2023- present)

His Grace, the Most Reverend Bishop Robert M. Pipta shepherds the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma as its sixth bishop.  With a Cathedral located in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area, his ministry extends to Byzantine Catholic parish and monastic communities throughout twelve states of the U.S. heartland.  He was ordained to the episcopacy at Resurrection Parish in Euclid, Ohio on 8 November 2023, having previously served as a priest of the Holy Protection of Mary Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Phoenix.

He was born in April of 1967 (on the Friday of Thomas Week) in Anaheim, California.  Raised in southern California, he attended public schools there and completed a Bachelor of Arts program in Music at the University of California, Irvine in 1990.

He was a member of Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church in Anaheim from shortly after its founding in 1969.  His ordinations to minor orders, diaconate, and presbyterate took place at his home parish where he served at the altar from the age of six and served as a weekday cantor during his college years.  He was formed for the priesthood at the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from September 1990 until his presbyteral ordination on 21 April 1994.

He served Saint Stephen Pro-Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona as parochial vicar from May of 1994 until August of 1997.  He then served as administrator of Saint Gabriel the Archangel Church in Las Vegas, Nevada until February of 2004.  He served as the pastor of Holy Angels Church in San Diego, California until April of 2014.

He then served as the rector of the Byzantine Catholic Seminary in Pittsburgh until shortly after he was appointed the Bishop of Parma by His Holiness, Pope Francis, on 31 August 2024.
He has served on the Intereparchial Liturgy and Music Commissions and had served as Eparchial Vocations Director for over nineteen years.  As Vocations Director, he organized the development of the “Alive in Christ” ascetical boot camps for boys and their fathers to assist them in spiritual growth and right discernment.

As a bishop, he serves as the episcopal moderator of the Intereparchial Commissions for Sacred Music and Vocations and as the episcopal moderator Intereparchial Commission for Sacred Liturgy. 

Regarding his hobbies, listening to, playing, and singing various types of music and studying the history and physics of manned space exploration are among his favorites.

Bishop Pipta’s episcopal heraldry is based on an icon of Our Venerable Father Romanus the Melodist given him on the occasion of his presbyteral ordination in April 1994. His education in music and extensive experience as a cantor made fitting his prayers to this saint as a special patron. The Feast of Saint Romanus is on the 1^st of October and is observed concurrently with the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos, the Patronal Feast of the Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh to which the Eparchy of Parma belongs.  Saint Romanus is often found depicted as appearing with the Theotokos in icons of her Protection Feast.

Our Venerable Father Romanus, who lived in the fifth century, is known to have composed many and various kontakia.  Bishop Pipta’s motto comes from the Kontakion on the Mission of the Apostles, “May I obey what I preach and be the first to do what I teach.”