LITTLE ROCK (AK)
Pine Bluff Commercial
Tuesday, May 16, 2006 10:49 AM CDT
LITTLE ROCK - The Rev. J. Peter Sartain, bishop of Little Rock, was named by Pope Benedict on Tuesday as the new bishop for Joliet, Ill.
Sartain, 53, was installed in Little Rock on March 6, 2000, after Little Rock bishop Andrew J. McDonald retired.
Sartain, a native of Memphis, Tenn., is the sixth bishop in the diocese of Little Rock's 163 years, leading Arkansas' 90,000 Catholics.
When Pope John Paul II named Sartain as bishop of Little Rock, he had been a priest in Memphis for 22 years. Sartain had been vicar general of the Diocese of Memphis and pastor of St. Louis Church since 1992. He was ordained a priest in 1978.
Sartain is to replace Bishop Joseph Imesch, who recently apologized for his handling of a sexual abuse case that allegedly took place in the diocese in the 1960s. Imesch has resigned because he is soon to turn 75.