Michelle Peduto, the former superintendent of the Catholic Schools of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, died Tuesday. Peduto served Catholic schools in the Diocese of Pittsburgh for more than 21 years, according to the diocese. She became superintendent in 2019 and stepped down in June to spend time with family.
A statement from the diocese said she died of cancer. She had been battling metastatic breast cancer over the years, the diocese said. “She was a beautiful example of deep trust in the Lord.
She leaves us a legacy of what it means to work for the building of God’s kingdom,” Bishop David Zubik wrote in a letter announcing her death to clergy and diocesan staff. A funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Monday in Saint James Church (Divine Redeemer Parish) in Sewickley. The service will be livestreamed on the Diocese’s YouTube page. In its statement, the diocese credited Peduto with successfully leading Catholic schools through a diocesewide school reorganization and the covid-19 pandemic.
Currently, the diocese has about 13,000 students in 45 schools with more than 1,000 teachers. “She oversaw implementation of a sweeping regionalization of Catholic schools that had been in the works for years,” the diocese statement said. “No longer would a single parish support one school, but every parish in a geographic region would support the schools in that region, and those schools would share staff and resources.
“While some schools closed and many changed names, they became more sustainable, more affordable and enrollment in many grew.” Peduto guided the Pittsburgh Diocese’s schools during the covid-19 pandemic and won accolades for resuming in-person instruction while following all public health guidelines, the diocese said. “In 2023, when many school districts nationwide were grappling with severe educational losses from the covid years, test scores in schools of the Diocese of Pittsburgh were stellar,” the diocese said.
One of Peduto’s final duties was to organize a convention of the National Catholic Education Association in Pittsburgh, which presented her with its 2024 Lifetime Commitment to Catholic Education Award. In 1985, she married her husband, David, a career army officer specializing in medical logistics. He died in 2016.
They have four children..
