The new spiritual leader of Utah's Roman Catholics asked for his community's prayers Thursday as he embarks on a "crash course" on his new home and new role as a bishop.
Bishop-elect George H. Niederauer said as a newcomer to the community, he has "a horror" about presuming to know what Utah Catholics need.While his immediate priority will be to provide leadership that enriches the Catholic community's life of prayer, worship and service, Monsignor Niederauer said he will look to the people as "my best teachers about the concerns and opportunities of the diocese."
But first, Monsignor Nie-der-auer, who has devoted much of his career to scholarship, teaching and ministering to priests, is working to get over the shock of being called as a bishop by Pope John Paul II.
"Being a bishop anywhere is daunting and has left me a bit stunned and dazed," said Monsignor Niederauer, a tall man with silvery gray hair and a ruddy complexion. "That was more of a hurdle for me than Utah."
The Catholic Church announced this week Monsignor Niederauer will be the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles, who has been close friends with Monsignor Niederauer since the 1950s, will ordain and install him as bishop on Jan. 25.
The day has special significance for Monsignor Niederauer - it's the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, who Monsignor Niederauer said was "one of the first and perhaps the greatest of the church's missionaries."
Mahony will be assisted by Archbishop William J. Levada of Portland, Ore., and Bishop Tod D. Brown of Boise. The three were seminary classmates with Monsignor Niederauer at St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, Calif.
"As a classmate and personal friend of Bishop-elect George Niederauer, I could not be more pleased than with his appointment," Mahony said in a press release issued Thursday. " has a deep and abiding commitment to priests, and he will surely focus much of his ministry across the state of Utah with his priests. He knows the value of having priests who take seriously their spiritual lives and who live out their priestly commitments through a deeply prayerful life."
Monsignor Niederauer outlined the spiritual leadership priests need to display in an article he wrote for the summer 1991 issue of Church, a quarterly publication of the National Pastoral Life Center in New York.
A good spiritual leader, Monsignor Niederauer wrote, has the traits identified in a letter from St. Paul to Timothy: "Even-tempered, self-controlled, modest, hospitable, not addicted to strong drink, not contentious but gentle, men of peace, not lovers of money, serious, straightforward, truthful."
A spiritual leader, he wrote, is a disciple involved in unceasing prayer and conversion; constantly views American and kingdom values side-by-side in faith; pursues a collaborative style of servant leadership and lives "creatively with the tension between his own frailty as an earthen vessel and his call to be a strong, radically Christian leader."
At the same time, he said, a priestly spiritual leader is not "a weakling or a cipher," but speaks with authority as a radically Christian witness.
"Catholics want a priest capable of giving homilies with more consistency and nutritional value than Jello left in the sun," Monsignor Niederauer wrote.
In a press conference Thursday at the pastoral center of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, Monsignor Niederauer displayed the traits his friends say will endear him to Utahns: humor, intellect, compassion, strong spiritual leadership and humbleness.
He pledged to be active in ecumenical work with all faiths in Utah, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"With them, and with the other religious traditions, our Catholic faith community shares many convictions about, and commitments to, traditional human, family, civic and spiritual values," Monsignor Niederauer says. "We especially defend life at all its stages."
Monsignor Niederauer also issued an appeal to Latino Catholics in Utah, who had earlier made it clear the new bishop should have a deep understanding of their culture.
In remarks delivered in Spanish, he said he understood the historical roots of Catholicism in Utah as well as the large portion of the Catholic community represented by Latinos today. He asked for the Latino community's help in understanding its needs and its patience as he builds his ministry.
Monsignor Niederauer said St. John's seminary gave him a microcosm experience of work in a multicultural world. While there, he established the requirement that seminarians study Spanish daily and set aside one day weekly on which only Spanish was spoken at prayers, hymns and mass. That gained the seminary recognition by the Association of Theological Schools, an accrediting agency, as one of three leading seminaries for multicultural emphasis.
Deacon Tranquilino Otera, of Sacred Heart Catholic Church, said the Latino community will be anxious to learn more about the new bishop.
"I understand he's been involved with Hispanics in Los Angeles," Otera said. "He knows the culture well, he knows the people well."
Monsignor Niederauer said he would actively reach out to the rural missions outside the Wasatch Front, continue to emphasize service to the poor, homeless and victims of abuse, and stress the importance of Catholic education at all levels.
Monsignor Niederauer said a shortcoming may be that he has not spent a lot of time working directly in parishes.
That self-criticism is too harsh, said Father Jeremiah McCarthy, rector at St. John's Seminary.
"He's been actively involved in working in the parish here, a part of his seminary duties," said McCarthy, who has known Monsignor Niederauer for more than 20 years. Monsignor Niederauer also currently works with St. Victor's Church in West Hollywood.
Monsignor Niederauer, 58, was born and raised in Long Beach, Calif., the only child of George and Elaine Monsignor Niederhauer. Both his parents are deceased.
He graduated from St. Anthony's High School in Long Beach, and then attended one year at Stanford University. He then decided to enter the priesthood, following the example of friends who had gone directly to the seminary from high school.
He credits Dominican nuns at St. Catherine's Military Academy, which he attended as a boy, for inspiring his interest in pursuing a priestly calling.
Monsignor Niederauer received a bachelor of philosophy degree from St. John's Seminary College in Camarillo, Calif., and a bachelor of sacred theology degree from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
He was ordained a priest in 1962. He earned a master's degree in English literature at Loyola University of Los Angeles and a doctorate in literature from the University of Southern California.
He has spent the past two years as co-director of the Cardinal Manning House of Prayer in Los Angeles. Most of his previous service was as an instructor of English literature at St. John's Seminary. He served as rector in the college from 1979 to 1992.
He lists his hobbies as classical music, stamp collecting, reading and watching films.
Monsignor Niederauer is a "very warm, engaging, thoughtful man who has a great touch with people," McCarthy said. "I think you're getting a very fine pastor and a man who has a very fine intellect and a great sense of vision."
Monsignor Terrence Fitzgerald, who has served as diocesan administrator since Bishop William K. Weigand transferred last January to Sacramento, said prayers that God would guide the church in sending a leader to Utah had been answered in Monsignor Nie-der-auer.
Fitzgerald, who has known Monsignor Niederauer for years, said it was "like welcoming an old friend to Utah."
The Rev. Weigand said Utah is getting a strong spiritual leader, both for the clergy and the laity. He noted that Monsignor Niederauer's experiences in Los Angeles, where there is great ethnic diversity, has prepared him to be sensitive to Utah's minorities.