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WASHINGTON—(February 28, 2006)Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston, Texas. Coadjutor Archbishop Daniel N. DiNardo will now become Archbishop of Galveston-Houston.
Reverend Monsignor Lepoldo Girelli, Charge d'Affaires at the Apostolic Nunciature, made the announcement.
Joseph A. Fiorenza was born in Beaumont, Texas, January 25, 1931. He was appointed Bishop of San Angelo on September 4, 1979, and Bishop of Galveston-Houston, December 18, 1984.
Archbishop Fiorenza was President of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference (now United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) from 1998 to 2001.
Daniel N. DiNardo was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on May 23, 1949. He was ordained a priest of the Pittsburgh diocese July 16, 1977, and served in the Holy See's Congregation for Bishops from 1980 to 1990.
Bishop DiNardo was named Coadjutor Bishop of Sioux City in 1997 and became Bishop of Sioux City in 1998. He was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Galveston-Houston on January 16, 2004.
In December, 2004, Pope John Paul II created the new Ecclesiastical Province of Galveston-Houston and elevated the See of Galveston-Houston to a Metropolitan See. Bishop Fiorenza, who had led the diocese for 20 years, became the first Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, and Bishop DiNardo became Coadjutor Archbishop.
The Ecclesiastical Province of Galveston-Houston comprises the suffragan Dioceses of Beaumont, Tyler, Austin, Victoria, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville. A province is a group of neighboring dioceses grouped together under a metropolitan (Archbishop) to foster relations among the bishops and those dioceses.
The Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston comprises 10 counties in the State of Texas. It has a Catholic population of over one million in a total population of about five million.