Michigan Bishop's Appointment As Coadjutor Archbishop in Newark Archdiocese Is Confirmed

By Mark Mueller and Jeff Goldman
The Star-Ledger
September 24, 2013

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/09/michian_bishops_appointment_as_coadjutor_bishop_in_newark_archdiocese_is_confirmed.html

Bernard A. Hebda

The expected appointment of Bishop Bernard A. Hebda as coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese Newark was confirmed this morning in an e-mail from the Vatican News Service.

Hebda's appointment will be made official at 11 a.m. today at the archdiocesan offices in Newark.

Hebda will assist John J. Myers in running New Jersey’s largest diocese, with more than 1.3 million Roman Catholics in Essex, Union, Hudson and Bergen counties. Myers has been archbishop since 2001.

Advocates for victims of clergy sex abuse suggested the move was almost certainly tied to scandals that have clouded Myers’ stewardship of the archdiocese this year. During that period, one priest was arrested after violating a ban on ministry to children, and another took up residence in a parish despite a credible history of sexual abuse.

Myers also was faulted last month for missing or ignoring signs of abuse among priests during his former assignment as bishop of Peoria, Ill.

The 54-year-old Hebda was previously the bishop of the Gaylord, Mich. He was born in Pittsburgh, was ordained to the priesthood in 1989, and received episcopal ordination in 2009, the Vatican News Service said.