Peter and Paul. He selected as his episcopal motto: ""Father of Mercy and Love"". In addition to his duties as vicar general and vicar for administration, Cistone served as head of the Secretariat for Catholic Human Services and the Secretariat for Temporal Services. He also had pastoral oversight for parishes in South Philadelphia and a portion of Delaware County. Cistone was later named the sixth Bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, by Pope Benedict XVI on May 20, 2009. He succeeded Robert J. Carlson (who was appointed Archbishop of St. Louis the previous April), and was installed on July 28, 2009. As Bishop, he serves as the spiritual leader for 120,000 Catholics in Central Michigan. Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cistone was a member of the Committee for Protection of Children and Young People, Committee for Cultural Diversity in the Church, Subcommittee for African-American Affairs, and Committee on Budget and Finance. In 2011, Bishop Cistone appointed a 19-member commission to make recommendations about parish closings. In January 2013, Cistone announced that many of the diocese's 105 parishes would be closed, reducing the number of parishes to 56. "I saw a need to position ourselves in a way by which parish communities are re-invigorated, liturgically alive and actively engaged in outreach to those in need." However, many Catholics were angered by Cistone's announcement, holding protests against the parish closings. Retired priests spoke out against the parish closures, calling the recommendations a "complete injustice" and stating that nobody "on the planning commission or the Bishop understand." Reportedly, 5,000 people in the Saginaw Diocese left the Catholic Church between 2013 and 2015. Cistone died suddenly at his home in Saginaw, Michigan, on October 16, 2018, aged 69 from lung cancer. According to a 2005 grand jury investigation into clergy sexual abuse, while serving as assistant vicar for administration in 1996, Cistone was involved with silencing a nun who tried to alert parishioners at St. Gabriel parish about abuse by a priest. A week after being named to lead the Diocese of Saginaw, Cistone was asked by a mid-Michigan newspaper reporter about the grand jury investigation and his reported role in covering up instances of sexual abuse. Cistone expressed unhappiness with how little opportunity he had been given to respond to the report, saying, "Unfortunately, the grand jury procedure, as followed in Philadelphia, did not allow for any opportunity to address such questions to offer explanation or clarification."