New bishop named for Oakland

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has appointed Fr Michael Charles Barber, sj, as the bishop of Oakland, California. Friday’s appointment reduces the vacant sees in the United States from 10 to nine.

Bishop-elect Barber succeeds Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone, who was appointed to San Francisco in July 2012. Archbishop Alex J. Brunett, archbishop-emeritus of Seattle, has been serving as the apostolic administrator since last October.

At the moment of his appointment, Bishop-elect Barber was serving as the director of spiritual formation at Saint John’s Seminary in Brighton in the Archdiocese of Boston.

He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on July 13, 1954. He entered the Company of Jesus in 1973, after having attended Saint Pius X Preparatory School at Galt, California.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and history at Gonzaga University in 1978, completed his theological studies at Regis College at the University of Toronto in 1985, and obtained an ecclesiastical licence in dogmatic theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1989.

He was ordained to the priesthood for the Society of Jesus in 1985 and made his final vows in 2005.

His previous pastoral assignments have included: missionary work in Western Samoa; assistant professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University; tutor and chaplain at the University of Oxford and bursar of the Campion Hall Jesuit Community; director of the School of Pastoral Leadership of the Archdiocese of San Francisco; professor and spiritual father at Saint Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park; and chaplain to the U.S. Navy Reserve.

The 59-year-old bishop-elect speaks English, Italian, Spanish and Latin.

The date of his episcopal ordination is to be announced.