He has often said one test of whether Mormons and Catholics are truly following their faith is the way they talk about each other when each person is among fellow parishioners rather than in mixed company. "We have to live up to the best ideals of our faith." He lauded LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley's efforts to get Latter-day Saints to "honor diversity, to respect the beliefs and opinions of people who are different than you."

Those and similar sentiments from other LDS leaders, including fellow Alliance for Unity member Elder M. Russell Ballard, "have been genuine," he said.

In 2001, when the Vatican ruled that baptism in the LDS Church is not valid as a Christian baptism, he cautioned the move "should not be understood as either judging or measuring a spiritual relationship between Jesus Christ and the LDS Church," pointing out that Latter-day Saints also baptize new converts, no matter what their previous faith tradition.

His experience with interfaith relations and the needs of minority parishioners will be called upon in a larger way in San Francisco, where he'll preside over many churches that are largely Latino and Filipino, as well as a larger than average gay population.

He's not sure how the pope's recent directive on gay priests will affect his duties, though part of his responsibility will be to oversee St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif. "My sense is the principles in the document by the pope are not new, but the application of them must be done very prudently and very faithfully. I'll know a lot more about that when I get there in terms of talking with seminary administrators, faculty and students."

The sexual-abuse scandal that rocked that Catholic Church in recent years will have some residual impact for the bishop, who said he's been told there are from six to 12 cases yet to be resolved with victims, down substantially from 100 or more originally brought to light in the area of his jurisdiction. "What remains even after the settlement is the terribly important factor of outreach to victims and families. That will be ongoing, of course."

He'll oversee some 425,000 Catholics living in multiple time zones, including 10 dioceses in all: several in northern California, two in Nevada and one each in Honolulu and Utah. As such, he will have some input in calling Utah's new bishop, "but no decision-making power." His installation as archbishop is scheduled for Feb. 15 at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco.

The bishop says he's familiar with his new living quarters — kitty-cornered across the street from the cathedral — because he visited former Archbishop Levada there a couple of times a year. The two are boyhood friends who met as freshmen in high school. Their families were very close, he said, and they now own a retirement condo together in their hometown of Long Beach.