December 15, 2005

Vatican Names Niederauer New SF Archbishop

SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
foxreno.com

POSTED: 9:42 am PST December 15, 2005
UPDATED: 10:10 am PST December 15, 2005

SAN FRANCISCO -- Pope Benedict XVI named George Niederauer -- the bishop of Salt Lake City -- to become the ninth archbishop of San Francisco, the Vatican said Thursday.

Niederauer, 69, had served as bishop for the Salt Lake City diocese for about a decade. A native of Los Angeles, he went to Stanford for his freshman year in college before transferring to St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. He was ordained in 1962 and appointed to the eighth bishop of Salt Lake City -- a diocese of more than 100,000 Catholics -- in November 1994. ...

Niederauer, who received the Gandhi Peace Award from the Gandhi Alliance for Peace in 2004, was on the committee that authored the Charter To Protect Young People -- the church's new doctrine on priests accused of sexual molestation.

However, he did raise a few eyebrows when he wrote a letter to a Los Angeles judge asking for leniency for a priest that had been convicted of 25 counts of child abuse.

Healy brushed aside any concerns for a diocese that is nearing the end of millions of dollars in litigation of some 45 abuse cases.

"The Diocese of San Francisco is close to resolving all those lawsuits," Healy said. "So I think it's a good opportunity for the archbishop to come in and remind the church what it's all about -- it's about proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's about personal holiness and personal salvation. He is the right person at the right time."

Posted by kshaw at December 15, 2005 01:34 PM