Coat of Arms

For his personal coat of arms, Auxiliary Bishop Rizzotto adopted a design that reflects his heritage and his life as a priest and as a bishop. Throughout the majority of Bishop Rizzotto's priestly ministry, he has been deeply involved in matters of justice and social ministry. As a pastor, having walked in Selma for the causes of the poor and disadvantaged, Bishop Rizzotto realizes that in the care of God's less fortunate children, before anything else can be done to provide the tools of self-help, those in need must first be fed: fed physically, emotionally and spiritually in order to achieve and advance. On a red field of the Bishop's heraldic device are two arms extending a golden bowl of white rice to those in need. This graphic representation becomes more symbolically significant when one realizes that Bishop Rizzotto's name is a variant of the Italian word for a seasoned rice dish which is risotto, thus representing that by his acceptance to receive the fullness of Christ's priesthood, as a bishop, Bishop Rizzotto is willing to be given so completely that he is giving himself to those in need … feeding them with rice … feeding them with himself … and feeding them, as a priest and bishop, with the greatest gift to humankind, the nourishment of Christ in the most holy Eucharist.

On an upper portion of the design, know as a chief, is a blue field which has displayed on a gold cross, a silver (white) rose. These devices and colors are taken from the arms of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston which Bishop Rizzotto has served for his entire priestly ministry.

For his motto, Bishop Rizzotto has adopted the phrase "Make Us One in Christ." By the use of this phrase, His Excellency expresses the underlying reality of the Eucharist: that we all become the one body of Christ in Christ, and that as one who is now called to shepherd God's people, it is the work of the bishop to bridge all that divides one from another, to bring all to one in the Christ who is the Savior of the world.

The device is completed with the external ornaments, which are a gold processional cross, which is placed in back of the shield and which extends above and below the shield, and a pontifical hat, called a gallero, with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield all in green. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See of March 31, 1969.

- Deacon Paul J. Sullivan, Permanent Deacon of the Diocese of Providence

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