Pottsville Native Named Harrisburg Diocese Bishop

The Republican-Herald
January 24, 2014

http://republicanherald.com/pottsville-native-named-harrisburg-diocese-bishop-1.1622282

Pope Francis has appointed a former priest of the Diocese of Allentown as the next Bishop of Harrisburg. He is Bishop Ronald W. Gainer, for the last 11 years the Bishop of Lexington, Kentucky.

Bishop Gainer, 66, was born and raised in Pottsville. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Allentown in 1973. During his 30 years as a priest of this diocese, he was an assistant pastor at the former St. Bernard Church in Easton and St. Catharine of Siena Church in Reading and a campus minister at Lafayette College, Easton, and at Kutztown University and Albright College, Reading. He was the Judicial Vicar of the Diocese, pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Whitehall and the first Secretary of Catholic Life and Evangelization in the diocese.

Diocese of Allentown Bishop John Barres issued the following statement: “On behalf of the priests and people of the Diocese of Allentown, I welcome Bishop Gainer back to his home state. This native son of Pottsville is a fine bishop, canonist and a very pastoral man with deep experience in evangelization. I look forward to working with Bishop Gainer and extend to him the best wishes and prayerful support of the faithful of the Diocese of Allentown where his vocation was nurtured and first bore fruit.”

Bishop Gainer will be introduced at a news conference at the Cardinal Keeler Center, 4800 Union Deposit Road, Harrisburg at 10 a.m. today.

The Diocese of Harrisburg consists of 15 counties in central Pennsylvania with a Catholic population of almost 240,000 people.