On 14 December 1989, he was elected the Archbishop of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi-Conza-Nusco-Bisaccia, and was consecrated a bishop on 6 January 1990 by Pope John Paul II with then-Archbishop Giovanni Battista Re and Archbishop Myroslav Marusyn acting as co-consecrators. As bishop, he took the Latin motto "cum Maria Mater Jesu, cum Petro et sub Petro," which translates as "with Mary, Mother of God, with Peter and beneath Peter." During his reign, numerous churches and other structures in the archdiocese that were damaged by the Irpina earthquake of 1980 were reopened or rebuilt.