Pope Benedict has named Baker Bishop Robert Vasa as Coadjutor Bishop of Santa Rosa in California.
The
appointment as coadjutor means that Bishop Vasa, 59, eventually will
succeed Bishop Daniel Walsh, 73-year-old current bishop of Santa Rosa,
just north of San Francisco.
The appointment was publicized in Washington Jan. 24, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
One
of Bishop Vasa's key legacies is a retreat center near Powell Butte,
which gives youths a place for spiritual gatherings. More than 1,500
people went there last year.
True to his can-do nature, the
bishop tended to pull weeds, landscape and do handiwork at the center
himself. He also helped move along the construction of the new St.
Francis of Assisi Parish in Bend, a project that had been stalled for
years.
Bishop Vasa will arrive in Santa Rosa on March 4. He
plans to have an administrator appointed soon while the process of
naming a new Bishop of Baker ensues.
In more than a decade as
spiritual leader of central and eastern Oregon's Catholics, Bishop Vasa
gained a national following for efforts to uphold Catholic teaching in
the face of what he considered threats and laxity from inside and
outside the church.
He had lay ministers sign an oath of fidelity of
Catholic teaching and erased the Catholic identity of a Bend hospital
where doctors performed sterilizations.
He criticized pro-choice
Catholic politicians and once warned against a group of schismatics that
denied the Second Vatican Council.
He put tens of thousands of miles on his car visiting the people of small churches and missions.
To
help fill in gaps because of a shortage of local-born clergy, he worked
to welcome priests from Africa.
A community of African nuns and various
Catholic contemplatives relocated to central Oregon during his tenure.
He sought out a prayerful Catholic presence for his diocese.
"He
has meant a lot of good things to central and eastern Oregon," says
Father Joseph Reinig, vicar general of the diocese. "He has taken a firm
stance on many of the things that have affected the church in recent
years. He has been a beacon for those who still believe in the church
and its mission."
Father Reinig says he will miss his boss.
Bishop Vasa, the priest explains, is "one of the easiest men to talk to
I've ever met" and "one of the most compassionate men I've ever met."
When
named to Baker, the bishop described himself as “common as an old
shoe.” He showed a farmer's resourcefulness, soon rewiring the diocesan
offices for a computer network himself. He told the Catholic Sentinel he
is “hard as nails but a Teddy bear inside.”
He was born Robert
Francis Vasa in Lincoln, Neb. on May 7, 1951, one of seven children who
grew up on a farm in Weston, Neb. He studied for the priesthood at St.
Thomas Seminary in Denver and Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas, and was
ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln on May 22, 1976.
Bishop Vasa holds a Canon Law Licentiate from the Gregorian University in Rome.
He
served the Diocese of Lincoln in various positions, including assistant
chancellor, judicial vicar and vicar general, all under Lincoln Bishop
Fabian Bruskewitz. He was also a high school teacher.
In 1995 Pope John
Paul II named him a “Prelate of Honor” with the title of “Monsignor." He
was appointed Bishop of Baker November 19, 1999.
At the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Vasa is a member of the
Catholic Home Missions Subcommittee and also serves on the Task Force on
Health Care.
The Diocese of Santa Rosa in California includes
11,711 square miles.
It has a population of 909,361 people, of whom
169,567, or 18.6 percent, are Catholic.
SIC: CS/USA