USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Pope Names Two Auxiliary Bishops for Washington Archdiocese

Pope Names Two Auxiliary Bishops for Washington Archdiocese

WASHINGTON (December 29, 2001) -- Pope John Paul II named Monsignor Kevin J. Farrell, Vicar General for Administration and Moderator of the Curia, Archdiocese of Washington, and Father Francisco Gonzalez Valer, S.F., Episcopal Vicar for Hispanic Catholics, as Auxiliary Bishops of Washington.

Bishop-elect Farrell, 54, was appointed Titular Bishop of Rusuccuru. Bishop-elect Gonzalez, 62, was assigned the Titular See of Lamfua.

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

Kevin Farrell was born in Dublin, Ireland, September 2, 1947.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Salamanca in Spain and later a Licentiate in Philosophy and also in Theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. In 1976 and 1977 he obtained graduate degrees in dogmatic theology and pastoral theology from the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He holds a Masters degree in business and administration from the University of Notre Dame.

Msgr. Farrell entered the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ in 1966 and was ordained a priest on December 24, 1978.

As a member of the Legionaries, he was chaplain of the University of Monterrey in Mexico, where he taught economics. He was also General Administrator of the congregation with responsibilities for seminaries and schools in Italy, Spain and Ireland.

In 1984 Msgr. Farrell was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Washington. He was associate pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church here, 1984-1985, Executive Director of the Spanish Catholic Center, 1986, Acting Executive Director of Catholic Charities, 1987-1988, and Secretary for Finance and Management, 1989-2001. He was named Vicar General for Administration/Moderator of the Curia and pastor of Annunciation Parish, Washington, earlier this year.

Francisco Gonzalez Valer was born in Arcos de Jalon, Spain, on May 22, 1939. He entered the Missionary Seminary of the Holy Family in Barcelona and took final vows in the Congregation of the Sons of the Holy Family in August, 1960. Sent to the United States, he was ordained a priest in Richmond on May 1, 1964.

Father Gonzalez studied in the School of Theology at the Catholic University of America from 1960 to 1965. He also earned a Masters in Education at Catholic University in 1967.

Following ordination, he held pastoral assignments in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, where he served as Advocate and Pro-Synodal Judge at the Marriage Tribunal. He taught and did pastoral work in Spain from 1975 to 1976, and was pastor of Our Lady of Peace Church in Greeley, Colorado, from 1982 to 1983.

From 1986 to 1996, Bishop-elect Gonzalez was director of Hispanic, Cursillo, and Charismatic movements in the Archdiocese of Washington. He taught at two Washington-area schools, the Academy of the Holy Cross in Kensington, Maryland, 1969-1971, and St. John's School in Frederick, 1984-1986. He was pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows Church, Takoma Park, Maryland, 1996-1997.

Bishop-elect Gonzalez was appointed Episcopal Vicar for Hispanic Catholics, Archdiocese of Washington, in 1997.