SAN FRANCISCO (CA)
The Bay Area Reporter
Cautious optimism by gay Catholics and others greeted last Thursday's papal announcement it would install Salt Lake City Bishop George Niederauer as San Francisco's next archbishop.
The archdiocese serves 425,000 parishioners in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. Niederauer will continue directing the Utah diocese until his installation February 15. ...
Niederauer told the Los Angeles Times last year that he regretted his 1986 letter urging a judge to give lenience to a former Orange County priest and friend, ultimately convicted of 26 counts of felony child sex abuse and, after violating probation, sentenced to six years in prison. Last week he called the letter a mistake.
"That impressed me," said pastor Craig Forner of St. Kevin's Church in Bernal Heights. Forner, who called Niederauer broad-minded, praised his "grasp of reality," and anticipates Niederauer's interaction with LGBTs. "Very few bishops are that open. I hope we would give him credit for what he learned. A man willing to admit he made a mistake."
Posted by kshaw at December 22, 2005 07:23 AM