A Bishop for all seasons — Utah's former Catholic leader ready to retire

For some of God's shepherds, the stresses of life ramp up as the clock winds down, and they discover too late that there is no more time to enjoy the sunset, walk in nature or reel in a hefty trout.

Bishop William Weigand doesn't plan to be one of them.

Utah's former Catholic leader is retiring next month as bishop of Sacramento, after 15 years there and 13 years before that in Salt Lake City. Back in 2004, he thought he'd be pushing up daisies by now, suffering from the final stages of primary schlerosing cholangitis, which clogs the vessels leading to bile ducts in the liver.

At the time, he said, he "was ready to go to God."

But apparently his work with the sheep wasn't complete. A man by the name of Dan Haverty — the fire chief of Folsom, Calif. — came to the rescue, not with his fire hose, but with a piece of his own liver to help the ailing church leader, who would have died without the transplant.

That act of Christian charity provided him another three-and-a-half years of "overtime," Bishop Weigand said, during which he was able to finish up several major restructuring initiatives within the Sacramento Diocese, bringing his tenure as bishop "to a more mature conclusion. I've now wrapped things up and I'm kind of there," he told the Deseret News this week.

He'll soon be 72, and with mandatory retirement at 75, he petitioned Pope Benedict XVI for an early release from his duties. With his health history, there was no resistance. He'll retire Nov. 30.

Though he was given a new lease on life, he was too busy to reflect on the extra time he'd been given. After a recovery period, he was back in the thick of things, heading up a $70 million capital campaign, restoring the church's main cathedral, helping to refurbish Catholic schools and working to help form the city's first private university, Catholic University of Sacramento, scheduled to open in 2012.

Rewarding work, to be sure, but he found himself "longing to be more than to do. I want to spend quality time admiring the sunsets and sunrises, smelling the roses. I feel a call to a somewhat more contemplative life after such a hectic, busy period."

It's the latest direction he's felt called to by God, all of the previous chapters of his life building on the one before.

He began his career as a priest in northern Idaho, in the Diocese of Boise, even though his roots were in Spokane. He enjoyed the work, and circumstances allowed him to volunteer for mission service in South America — work that would provide the language and cultural background he would eventually need as bishop to a growing Hispanic population.

After returning to Idaho, the pope called him to shepherd the flock in Utah as bishop. "I had no roots there, but it turned out to be 13 of the best years of my life," he said, reflecting on other preparatory experiences, including fundraising and restoration for the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

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