USCCB - (Office of Media Relations) - Salt Lake City Bishop Named Archbishop of San Francisco

Salt Lake City Bishop Named Archbishop of San Francisco

WASHINGTON (December 14, 2005)--Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop George H. Niederauer of Salt Lake City to be the Archbishop of San Francisco.

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

Archbishop-designate Niederauer succeeds the Most Reverend William J. Levada who is now Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Roman Curia.

George Hugh Niederauer was born June 14, 1936, in Los Angeles, California. After attending Catholic elementary and high schools, he entered St. John's Seminary, Camarillo, California. He was ordained a priest of the Los Angles Archdiocese on April 30, 1962.

After parish assignments, Father Niederauer was appointed professor of English at St. John's Seminary College where he also served as spiritual director.

In 1979, he became spiritual director at St. John's Theologate. He became rector there in 1987 and served in that post until 1992. From 1992 to 1994, he was co-director of the Cardinal Manning House of Prayer for Priests.

Named a Chaplain to the Holy Father in 1984, with the title "monsignor," and a Prelate of Honor in 1988, Monsignor Niederauer was appointed eighth Bishop of Salt Lake City on November 3, 1994. He was ordained a bishop on January 25, 1995.

Archbishop-designate Niederauer holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Southern California. He is the author of Precious as Silver: Imagining Your Life with God, published by Ave Maria Press. In 2004 he received the Gandhi Peace Award from the Gandhi Alliance for Peace.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco is comprised of 3 counties in northern California. It has a Catholic population of about 422,000 within a total population of nearly 1.7 million.

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