NEW MEXICO
ABQ Journal
By Olivier Uyttebrouck / Journal Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: Sunday, May 10, 2015
As the newly appointed bishop of Salt Lake City in 2007, John C. Wester found himself leading 300,000 Utah Catholics, about 80 percent of whom were Spanish speakers.
Wester decided to get busy learning Spanish.
“When I came here, I got a tutor and started working in earnest,” said Wester, who on April 27 was named the archbishop-elect of Santa Fe. “I love the language. For me, it’s not a chore.”
Today, Wester can carry on a basic conversation and celebrate Mass in Spanish, said Martin Alcocer, who publishes a Spanish-language magazine in Salt Lake City. …
As auxiliary bishop from 1998 to 2007, he took a leading role in dealing with the clerical sex abuse scandal in which the Archdiocese of San Francisco settled 101 abuse claims and paid $68 million in settlements from 2003 to 2011, according to news reports.
Wester met regularly with sexual abuse victims and participated in the 2002 meeting in Dallas when the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops drafted a zero-tolerance charter to protect children from sexual abuse by priests.
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