BishopAccountability.org
	Dallas Bishop Retires, Successor Named; Bishop Named for Lake Charles By Jerry Filteau Catholic News Service [Washington DC] March 6, 2007 http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0701288.htm Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Bishop Charles V. Grahmann of Dallas March 6 and named Auxiliary Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Washington to succeed him. The pope also named Msgr. Glen John Provost, a priest of the Diocese of Lafayette, La., as the new bishop of Lake Charles, La. He succeeds Bishop Edward K. Braxton, who was transferred to Belleville, Ill., in March 2005. The Lake Charles Diocese had been without a bishop just nine days short of two years. Bishop-designate Provost is to be ordained a bishop April 23 at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Lake Charles. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced the changes in Washington March 6. Bishop Grahmann, who turned 75 last July, has headed the Dallas Diocese since 1990. In the intervening years it has grown from 212,000 Catholics in a population of 2.5 million to just under a million Catholics in a population of nearly 3.5 million. About 800,000 of the Catholics in the diocese are Hispanics, most of them new arrivals within the past 20 years. Bishop Farrell, 59, who has lived in Spain and Mexico, is fluent in Spanish and has ministered to numerous Hispanic communities. He will be installed as bishop of Dallas May 1. At a press conference in Dallas, he said one of his first tasks will be "to get to know the people." "The greatest resource of any diocese is the faith of its people," he said. Born Sept. 2, 1947, in Dublin, Ireland, Kevin Joseph Farrell joined the Legionaries of Christ in 1966. He was ordained a priest Dec. 24, 1978, after studies at the University of Salamanca in Spain and the Pontifical Gregorian University and Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He earned licentiates in philosophy and theology from the Gregorian and graduate degrees in dogmatic theology and pastoral theology from St. Thomas Aquinas. He also holds a master's degree in business and administration from the University of Notre Dame. He is also fluent in Italian. As a member of the Legionaries, he was chaplain of the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where he taught economics, and was general administrator of the order with responsibilities for its seminaries and schools in Italy, Spain and Ireland. He left the Legionaries in 1984 to become a priest of the Washington Archdiocese and was named pastor of St. Thomas Apostle Parish in Washington. In 1986 he was made executive director of the Spanish Catholic Center, in 1987-88 he was acting executive director of Catholic Charities, and from 1989 to 2001 he was archdiocesan secretary for finance and management. In 2001 he was named vicar for general administration, moderator of the archdiocesan curia and pastor of Annunciation Parish. He was serving in those posts when he was named auxiliary bishop of Washington in December 2001. He was ordained a bishop Feb. 11, 2002. Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl said Bishop Farrell "has the ability to combine the wisdom of years of administrative experience with the pastoral demands of each new day." Bishop Farrell has said that his work with the poor and immigrants shaped his later work managing archdiocesan finances. He described the job of a church administrator as "using the church's resources to teach the faith and bring help and hope to people, as Jesus did." Charles V. Grahmann was born July 15, 1931, in Hallettsville, Texas. He was ordained a priest of the San Antonio Archdiocese March 17, 1956, after studies at Our Lady of the Lake Seminary and Assumption Seminary in San Antonio. He was named auxiliary bishop of San Antonio in June 1981 and was ordained a bishop Aug. 20 of that year. He was made first bishop of Victoria, Texas, in 1982. In December 1989 he was made coadjutor bishop of Dallas and on July 14, 1990, he became bishop of Dallas. In 1997 the diocese was hit with a record $119 million judgment -- later reduced to a settlement of $24.3 million -- in a widely publicized lawsuit over sexual molestation of minors by three priests. Most of the claims rose out of sexual crimes by Rudolph Kos, a priest who was laicized and is now serving a life term in prison. By early 2001 the diocese cleared the last of its debt from the settlement and Catholic institutions in the diocese, fueled by the needs of a burgeoning Catholic population, were engaged in a building boom unrivaled since the 1950s. Campaigns were announced in late 2000 for a combined $129.5 million for projects by 18 parishes and schools. "Things are just exploding around us. We're trying to manage that explosion and provide the services they need," Bishop Grahmann said. In a report to the Texas bishops in 2001, he predicted that nearly half the population of the state would be Hispanic by 2030 and called for "a much more aggressive program of identifying and training and forming lay Hispanic people. His own diocese, which then had 605,000 Hispanic Catholics, would jump to 1.35 million Hispanics by 2030, he said. Bishop Grahmann is president of New Evangelization of America, an inter-American episcopal and lay initiative that grew out of the 1997 special Synod of Bishops for America. It focuses especially on strengthening the use of media for evangelization. Glen John Provost was born Aug. 9, 1949, in Lafayette, La. He was ordained a priest of the Lafayette Diocese June 29, 1975, after studies at Immaculata Seminary in Lafayette, St. Joseph Seminary College in St. Benedict and the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he earned a degree in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas. He speaks French, Italian and Spanish. After ordination he was briefly stationed at Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish in Lake Charles. The Lake Charles Diocese, which was formed in 1980, was still part of the Lafayette Diocese at that time. He was associate pastor of St. Mary Magdalene Parish in Abbeville, La., from 1975 to 1985. From 1985 to 1997 he was rector of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Lafayette. Since 1997 he has been pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Lafayette and dean of the West Lafayette Deanery. Bishop-designate Provost has also served in a number of diocesan administrative and consultative roles including member of the diocesan school board and two terms as chairman of the priests' council. He has been a judge on the diocesan tribunal since 1985. He has gone on archaeological study tours to Syria, Jordan and Turkey. He studied Italian in Italy, Spanish in Spain, French at the Institut Catholique in Paris and Victorian English at the University of London. The Lake Charles Diocese has about 78,000 Catholics in a population of 278,000. "I am returning to the familiar and friendly city of my first assignment and to a people who exhibited such courage and perseverance in facing the full force of a destructive storm," the bishop-designate said, referring to the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. "These steadfast and strong men and women are an example to us all," he added. Contributing to this story were Debra Hampton in Dallas, Mark Zimmermann in Washington and Morris LeBleu in Lake Charles.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.