(03 June 09 - RV) On Wednesday Pope Benedict appointed George Joseph Lucas Archbishop
of Omaha in the United States of America.
Archbishop Lucas, formerly bishop
of Springfield Illinois, takes over from Archbishop Elden Francis Curtiss, who has
retired on reaching the age limit of 75. Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1949, he
was the eldest of four children and attended St. Louis Preparatory Seminary South,
and then Cardinal Glennon College. Archbishop Lucas studied theology at Kenrick-Glennon
Seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal John Carberry on May 24,
1975. After a period spent in pastoral work within his diocese, in 1987, he began
teaching at the newly-merged St. Louis Preparatory Seminary, becoming its Dean of
Students that same year. From 1990 to 1994, he served as Chancellor of the Archdiocese
of St. Louis and private secretary to Archbishop John May. In 1999, Msgr. Lucas
was appointed the eighth Bishop of Springfield in Illinois by Pope John Paul II. Within
the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Lucas sits on the Subcommittee
on the Catechism and Sapientia Christiana Committee. The Archdiocese of
Omaha originally covered all of Nebraska and Wyoming in the Western United States.
Today, its territory includes 23 northeast Nebraska counties and an area of 14,051
square miles.
The general population of the 23 counties is approximately
889,000 and the Catholic population is about 220,000 people. There are 149 parishes
and missions within the Archdiocese.