Juan Conway McNabb

Juan Conway McNabb (December 11, 1925 – February 26, 2016) was an American born bishop in the Catholic Church and served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Chulucanas in the Piura Region of Peru from 1988 to 2000.

Biography John Conway McNabb was born in Beloit, Wisconsin and professed religious vows in the Order of St. Augustine. He was ordained a Catholic priest on May 24, 1952. He taught in high schools sponsored by the Augustinian Community in Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri. On March 4, 1964, McNabb was named the first ordinary of the Prelature of Chulucanas by Pope Paul VI. He attended the third and fourth sessions of the Second Vatican Council as a voting member.

The prelature was and its area was about two thirds mountains and one-third desert. When McNabb came to the area there were no telephones, roads or electricity. There were 140,000 people in the territory and almost all of them were Catholic. There were only a few diocesan priests and six Franciscan priests from Sicily. He was not fluent in Spanish and so he utilized the services of an interpreter until he became fluent.

On April 8, 1967, Paul VI named McNabb Titular Bishop of Saia Maior, and he was ordained a bishop on June 17, 1967. Archbishop John Patrick Cody of Chicago was the ordaining prelate. Bishop Petrus Canisius Jean van Lierde of the Roman Curia and Archbishop Erasmo Hinojosa Hurtado of Piura were the principal co-consecrators. Beginning in 1985, McNabb was assisted in his work by the newly-ordained Robert Prevost, the future Pope Leo XIV, who served as diocesan chancellor and as an aide to McNabb. On December 12, 1988, John Paul II raised the prelature to a diocese and McNabb became its first bishop.