Department of Housing and Urban Development Nomination of Geno C. Baroni To Be an Assistant Secretary.

The President today announced that he will nominate Geno C. Baroni of the District of Columbia to be Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Neighborhood and Consumer Affairs). Monsignor Baroni is president of the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs.

He was born in Acosta, Pa., on October 24, 1930. He received a B.A. degree in 1952 from Mount St. Mary College and attended the seminary there from 1952 to 1956.

Between 1956 and 1960, Baroni was assistant pastor at St. Columbia Church in Johnstown, Pa., St. Leo's Church in Altoona, Pa., and Sacred Heart Church in Altoona, and an instructor at Catholic High School in Altoona and Johnstown.

From 1960 to 1965, he was assistant pastor at Saints Paul and Augustine Church in Washington, D.C. From 1965 to 1967, Baroni was executive director of the office of urban affairs of the Archdiocese of Washington. He was director of the U.S. Catholic Conference from 1967 to 1970.

In 1971 Baroni established the National Center for Urban Ethnic Affairs, and he has served as president since then.

Baroni is program director of the Urban Task Force of the U.S. Catholic Conference and a founder of the Miners' Legal Defense Fund, the Urban Rehabilitation Corporation, the Catholic Conference on Ethnic and Neighborhood Affairs, and the Italian-American Foundation.

He has been a consultant to White House conferences on youth, civil rights, and hunger and nutrition, and organized the White House conference on ethnicity and neighborhood revitalization.

Baroni is a member of the executive committee of the National Urban Coalition and is on the board of trustees of Common Cause, the Catholic Committee on Urban Ministry, and the Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

He was named a Prelate of Honor by Pope Paul VI in 1970. In 1976 he received the Civil Rights Award of the American Veterans' Committee.