George Hugh Niederauer

infobox bishopbiog
name = Most Rev. George Hugh Niederauer

|200pxreligion = Catholic Church
See = San Francisco
Title = Archbishop of San Francisco
Period = December 15, 2005 — present
Predecessor = William Levada
Successor = incumbent
date of birth = Birth date and age|1936|6|14|mf=y
place of birth = Los Angeles, California|

George Hugh Niederauer (born June 14, 1936) is an American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as the Archbishop of San Francisco. By virtue of his office as ordinary of the San Francisco archdiocese, Niederauer is also metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of San Francisco, which includes the suffragan dioceses of Honolulu, Las Vegas, Oakland, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Santa Rosa, and Stockton. Niederauer previously served as Bishop of Salt Lake City from 1994 to 2005.

Biography

infobox bishopstyles
name=George Hugh Niederauer
dipstyle=The Most Reverend
offstyle=Your Excellency
relstyle=Monsignor
deathstyle=not applicable |George Niederauer was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of George and Elaine Niederauer. He attended St. Anthony High School as a classmate of William Cardinal Levada. After graduating in 1954, he attended Stanford University. During his freshman year Niederauer changed course and decided to enter St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, from where in 1959 he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. He further completed his studies with a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Loyola University, Los Angeles in 1962. Niederauer also earned a Ph.D. in English Literature at USC.

Niederauer was ordained to the priesthood on April 30, 1962. He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1984, and was appointed the eighth Bishop of Salt Lake City by Pope John Paul II on November 3, 1994. Niederauer received his episcopal consecration on January 25, 1995 from Roger Cardinal Mahony, with Archbishop William Levada and Bishop Tod David Brown serving as co-consecrators.

On December 15, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI named him to succeed William Levada as the eighth Metropolitan Archbishop of San Francisco, following Levada's appointment to Pope Benedict's former post of Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Roman Curia. Archbishop Niederauer is the chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Communication, and a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. [cite news | url=http://www.sfarchdiocese.org/web_csf_12.21.07.pdf | title='Hooting and hollering' greet Catholic radio station's 'cut-over' (page 6) | work=Catholic San Francisco | publisher=Archdiocese of San Francisco | date=December 21, 2007 | author=Tom Burke | accessdate=2008-02-09]

On film, Niederauer "liked" "Syriana" and thought "Munich" "too long". [http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2006/02/to-see-of-st-francis.html] . The archbishop had no qualms affirming that he had seen "Brokeback Mountain", making him the first senior American cleric to state publicly that he has viewed the film. When asked for his reaction he said that "I thought it was very powerful, and I probably had a different take on it than a lot of people did.... It was a story not only about the relationship between the two principal characters, but very much a cluster of relationships... And I think in all of that one of the lessons is the destructiveness of not being honest with yourself, and not being honest with other people - and not being faithful, trying to live a double life, and what that does to each of the lives you try to live".Fact|date=May 2008

Quotes

* "People who see as the sex abuse scandal as having as the cause the sexual orientation of the priests - I felt they were mistaken" [http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2006/02/to-see-of-st-francis.html] .
* "Our belief is that we have to hold up the standard of abstinence, and we do that in all of our teaching about sexuality by saying that sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong. Now that's a very high bar to set and I understand that. And I don't regret that - I subscribe to it and I teach it. I understand why people find it difficult and disagree with it. I understand why they do. I don't agree with them.... What I would say is that people who disagree with us can disagree without being disagreeable."
* "Authentic moral teaching is based on objective truth, not polling." [cite news | url=http://www.sfarchdiocese.org/about-us/news/?i=1308 | title=Archbishop Addresses Recent Comments Made by House Speaker Pelosi | work=Catholic San Francisco | publisher=Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco | author=George Niederauer | date=2008-09-05 | accessdate=2008-10-05]

Sources

* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/bnied.html Catholic-Hierarchy.Org fact sheet]
* [http://www.utahcatholicdiocese.org/church/bishopsmessage.php?PHPSESSID=54930d3876b5560a0c3a72d3eec3e103 Salt Lake Diocese press release of Niederauer's appointment as archbishop]

References

External links

* [http://www.sfarchdiocese.org/archbishop.html Official page at the San Francisco Archdiocese website]
* [http://grande.icnp.com/broadcast_special_archbishop.html Webcasts of Masses with Archbishop George Niederauer]