Pope Francis has named Archbishop Bernard Hebda, 56, archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis. Archbishop Hebda has served as apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis since June 2015 and as coadjutor archbishop of Newark since 2013.
An installation Mass is planned for May 13, the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, according to The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the archdiocese.
The appointment was made public in Washington, D.C., March 24, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
Bernard Anthony Hebda was born Sept. 3, 1959, in Pittsburgh. He holds a master’s degree from Harvard University, a doctor of law degree from Columbia University, and a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (The Angelicum), in Rome.
He studied at North American College, Rome, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on April 6, 1989. After ordination to the priesthood, he served in several diocesan positions. He was an official at the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, 1996-2003, and served as undersecretary of the council from 2003-2009, when he was named bishop of Gaylord, Michigan. He was ordained bishop of Gaylord on Dec. 1, 2009.
Pope Francis appointed him coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark on Sept. 24, 2013; he was installed on November 5, 2013. He has served concurrently as apostolic administrator of St. Paul-Minneapolis since June 15, 2015, upon the resignation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis comprises 6,187 square miles in the state of Minnesota. It has a total population of 3,274,486 people, of whom 825,000, or 25 percent, are Catholic.