US Bishop Changes: Santa Rosa in California

[davidc2]

This morning the Holy See announced the decision of Pope Benedict XVI to accept the resignation of Bishop Daniel Francis Walsh. Bishop Robert Francis Vasa succeeds him as Bishop of Santa Rosa in California, USA.

Bishop Vasa had been serving as Coadjutor Bishop of the same diocese.

 

[Urbano_Macchi]

I am very excited about this change. Bishop Vasa is combatively orthodox, and he is most welcome in the Diocese of Santa Rosa. He requires an “oath of fidelity” to the teachings of the Church, and has said that politicians who support abortion “rights” may be guilty of heresy.

"I wanted anyone who taught the faith or who is held up as a public witness for the faith—such as lectors, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion, cantors, and catechists—to attest to the fact that they affirm and believe the basic teachings of the Church as found in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

This includes declaring such things as:** I believe in God, the virgin birth, the existence of purgatory, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. I also accept the Church’s moral teachings, such as the evil and sinfulness of contraception, homosexual activity, and adulterous behavior.**"
-Bishop Vasa

 

[Dale_M]

The local newspaper has written a lengthy article about the incoming bishop, who formerly had been bishop of the diocese of Baker, Oregon and a priest in the diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska before that.

Next Santa Rosa bishop brings ‘orthodox’ view of Catholicism

With a theological steadfastness that belies his homespun ways, Vasa gained national attention by stripping Bend’s major hospital of its Catholic affiliation for performing tubal ligations.

Vasa, a canon lawyer who was named bishop of Oregon’s Baker diocese in 2000, describes himself as a moderate, “standing in the very heart of the church.”

“I get criticized from both sides,” he said. “I must be moderate.”

pressdemocrat.com/article/20110305/ARTICLES/110309665?p=1&tc=pg

Bishop Walsh (who is 73) hopes to return to his hometown of San Francisco and serve as a parish priest.