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Pope Accepts Resignation Of Archbishop Flynn, Co-Adjutor Archbishop John Nienstedt Succeeds Him

WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Archbishop Harry J. Flynn, 75, from the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Archbishop John C. Nienstedt, 61, who has been co-adjutor archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis since April 24, 2007, succeeds him. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, made the announcement in Washington.

A co-adjutor archbishop enjoys the right of succession upon the death or retirement of the incumbent archbishop.

Archbishop Nienstedt had been bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota, before his appointment to St. Paul and Minneapolis. He was born in Detroit, March 18, 1947, and studied at the Pontifical Institute of St. Alphonsus and the Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest of the Detroit Archdiocese in 1974, and named Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit in 1996. He became Bishop of New Ulm in 2001.

Archbishop Flynn was named Co-adjutor Bishop of Lafayette in Louisiana in 1986, and became Bishop of Lafayette in 1989. He was appointed Co-adjutor Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1994, and became Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1995.

The St. Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese covers more than 6,100 square miles and includes 12 counties in Minnesota. It includes 3,001,500 persons, 625,000 of them, or 21 percent Catholic.