WASHINGTON (January 18, 2000) -- Pope John Paul II has named Bishop Roger L. Schwietz, OMI, of Duluth, to be Coadjutor Archbishop to Archbishop Francis T. Hurley of Anchorage, Alaska.

Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, announced the appointment.

A Coadjutor Bishop enjoys the right of succession which means that he becomes head of the arch/diocese immediately upon the retirement or death of the incumbent diocesan bishop.

Roger Lawrence Schwietz was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on July 3, 1940. He earned an M.A. at the University of Ottawa in 1964, an M.A. in Counseling/Psychology at Loyola University in 1972, and an S.T.L. at the Gregorian University in Rome in 1968. He was ordained a priest of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate on December 20, 1967.

Appointed Bishop of Duluth on December 12, 1989, he was ordained February 2, 1990.

Established February 9, 1966, the Archdiocese of Anchorage comprises the Third Judicial Division of Alaska, some 138,985 square miles. It has a Catholic population of 29,307 in a total population of 389,401.

Archbishop Hurley has headed the Archdiocese of Anchorage since 1976. He was previously Bishop of Juneau.

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