Salt Lake Catholic Diocese gets new bishop
The Most Rev. John C. Wester was named Salt Lake City's new Catholic bishop on Monday, filling the nearly yearlong vacancy left when former Bishop George Niederauer was named archbishop of San Francisco. Since Bishop Niederauer's installation last February, Bishop Wester has served as his auxiliary archbishop in the city Wester's family has called home for four generations.
Now the pope has called him to Utah, a place that his predecessor assures him is full of people who are "hospitable, gracious and kind." It's also a place, unlike San Francisco, where the Catholic Church is relatively small, with fewer resources. "More of a missionary diocese," as Bishop Wester noted in an interview Monday evening after a day that included Mass, a press conference and a tour of his new city.
He noted that the Catholic Church in Utah is growing, "and there's a lot of excitement because of that growth."
The 56-year-old bishop, Salt Lake City's ninth since 1891, has spent his entire career so far in the San Francisco area. But Utah is now his home, he said.
He will be installed at the Cathedral of the Madeleine on March 14.
Susan Northway, director of the office of religious education in the Salt Lake Diocese, arrived at work early Monday morning and immediately heard laughter coming from the office of Msgr. J. Terrence Fitzgerald, diocesan administrator.
"I thought 'That's a very good sign,"' Northway said about the new bishop, whom she found approachable, modest and open.
Later, at a press conference, Bishop Wester commented that "so many ethnic groups make up the rich tapestry of this local church."
Then he spoke briefly in Spanish, saying he was pleased that there are so many who speak Spanish in the diocese. Just last month, he said, he participated in a 12-mile pilgrimage in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and he sees his transfer to Salt Lake City "as an extension of that pilgrimage of faith in which I am guided by Mary's example and her intercession for us, her dear children."
Tony Yapias, director of Proyecto Latino de Utah, was pleased that the new bishop is already reaching out to Utah Latinos, 70 percent of whom are Catholic.
"I think that speaks volumes," he said. "For someone to come into the state of Utah and immediately say 'the Spanish-speaking community is important to me,' that's a tremendous plus."
Bishop Wester, who is chairman-elect of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, said that the church's "Welcoming the Stranger Among Us" doctrine seeks to help immigrants integrate into Catholic parishes and American society.
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