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	A Welcome Back to New Bishop of Yakima Diocese Yakima Herald-Republic April 14, 2011 http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/2011/04/13/a-welcome-back-to-new-bishop-of-yakima-diocese The new bishop of the Diocese of Yakima is returning to the city where he was baptized and where he visited his grandparents as a child. He speaks English and Spanish, among other languages, and has traveled across the oceans and into Mexico to better understand his parishioners and priests. The Most Rev. Joseph J. Tyson sounds like a very good fit for Yakima's Catholic community. Now an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle, Tyson succeeds the Most Rev. Carlos A. Sevilla, who has reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. Tyson, 53, was born in Moses Lake, part of the Yakima Diocese, and was baptized at Yakima's St. Paul Cathedral. His formal installation will take place May 31. "I'm just thrilled to be coming back to Central Washington," he said during Tuesday's announcement of his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI. Tyson anticipated it will take him a year or so to get reacquainted with the sprawling diocese, which includes 41 parishes, about 60 priests and approximately 80,000 parishioners in seven Central Washington counties. A simmering issue remains over allegations of sexual abuse by priests, an issue Tyson acknowledged Tuesday and for which his predecessor had been criticized. Indeed, the group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests offered no conciliation in its reaction to Tyson's appointment, citing problems it sees with other clerics named by Pope Benedict. Tyson, for his part, said Tuesday, "The church cannot apologize enough to the victims of clergy." The abuse scandal comes on top of any of the challenges in running such an expansive organization. His experience in the diverse setting of south Seattle -- in addition to Spanish his languages include Vietnamese and Serbo-Croatian -- will serve him well in the Yakima Diocese, where a majority of Catholics are native Spanish speakers. We welcome home the Rev. Tyson and wish him success as the spiritual leader of this area's largest religious denomination.
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