WHEELING — Msgr. Joseph Peterson, the vicar general and moderator of the curia of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, died Thursday morning at age 75, the diocese announced Thursday evening.
Peterson had served as vicar general, the second-highest ranking official in the diocese behind the Bishop, since April 2023. He was in his 49th year of the priesthood after being ordained by Bishop Joseph Hodges in Wheeling in April 1975.
When he named Peterson vicar, the Most Rev. Mark Brennan, Bishop of the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, said it was the respect that Peterson garnered throughout the diocese that made him an easy choice…