WASHINGTON (November 10, 2005)—Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Monsignor R. Walker Nickless, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Denver, as Bishop of Sioux City, Iowa.

Bishop-designate Nickless succeeds Bishop Daniel N. DiNardo, who became Coadjutor Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, in 2004.

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

Ralph Walker Nickless was born May 28, 1947. He studied Philosophy at St. Thomas Seminary, Denver, and earned a Licentiate in Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest on August 4, 1973.

Following ordination, Msgr. Nickless held pastoral and administrative positions in the Denver archdiocese. He was named Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Denver in 1993 and pastor, Our Lady of Fatima parish, in 2001. He was Vicar for Clergy, Seminarians, and Religious from 1999 to 2001.

Bishop-designate Nickless has also been a member of the College of Consultors, the Presbyteral Council, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council, the Archdiocesan Finance Council, the Priests' Retirement Committee, and the Board of Trustees of the Catholic Foundation.

Established in 1902, the Sioux City diocese comprises 24 counties in the northwest part of Iowa. It has a Catholic population of nearly 91,000 in a total population of 467,430.

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