MINNESOTA
KARE
[with video]
Allen Costantini, KARE
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Pope Francis turned to a Vatican veteran to take the temporary reins of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. The Pope formally accepted the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt on Monday.
The Most Reverend Bernard Hebda, 55, is currently the Coadjutor Archbishop of the Newark, New Jersey Archdiocese. Hebda will become Archbishop when the current Archbishop of that diocese retires in 2016 or dies.
Now, Hebda is also the Apostolic Administrator of Minnesota’s largest diocese until an Archbishop can be appointed. Hebda promised in a statement to “be as available as possible” locally while still performing his duties back East.
“He is very well connected,” said Dennis Coday, National Catholic Reporter Editor. “He spent 13 years working at the Vatican. His expertise is Canon law. So, what he is going to bring is kind of a pastoral approach, but very much steeped into the rules and regulations that run the Church.”
Hebda was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He was ordained a priest in 1989 and served at the Vatican in Rome from 1996-2009. He was appointed as Bishop of Gaylord, Michigan from 2009-2013.
Coday said his experts at the independent newspaper called Hebda “brilliant, generous, gentle and pious,” when he was appointed to the New Jersey position in 2013.
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