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January
9, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 1Oakland,
CA
New head for SF archdiocese
Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop George Niederauer
of Salt Lake City to be the archbishop of San Francisco, succeeding Archbishop
William Levada who now heads up the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith in Rome.
Archbishop-designate Niederauer, 69, will be installed as archbishop on
Feb. 15.
A native of Los Angeles, he graduated from St. Anthony High School in
Long Beach and attended Stanford University for one year before entering
St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. He was ordained a priest of the
Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1962.
He has a degree in theology from the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C. and holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University
of Southern California. He is author of “Precious as Silver: Imagining
Your Life with God” (Ave Maria Press).
After several parish assignments, he joined the St. John’s Seminary
faculty in 1965 first as an English teacher, then as spiritual director
and finally as rector from 1987 to 1992. He was co-director of the Cardinal
Manning House of Prayer for Priests in Los Angeles from 1992 until his
appointment as the eighth bishop of Salt Lake City. He was ordained a
bishop on Jan. 25, 1995.
In Utah he supported numerous local social justice causes and promoted
interfaith cooperation through the Alliance for Unity, a coalition of
church, business, media and political leaders. Since 2000 he has chaired
the Utah Coalition Against Pornography.
In 2003-2004, when a group of Utah miners were on strike for better wages,
safer working conditions and fair union representation, Bishop Niederauer
visited the picket line and supported the strikers. The Church gave them
food and financial support during their nine-and-a-half month struggle.
In 2004, Utah’s Gandhi Alliance for Peace gave Bishop Niederauer
its Gandhi Peace Award.
Bishop George Niederauer
