Niederauer named archbishop of San Francisco, Vatican says

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI has named the bishop of Salt Lake City to be the archbishop of San Francisco, the Vatican said Thursday.

The post had been vacant since Archbishop William Levada was appointed head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith earlier this year, making him the highest-ranking American ever appointed at the Vatican.

Monsignor George Niederauer, 69, had served as bishop for the Salt Lake City diocese for about a decade.

A native of Los Angeles, he was ordained in 1962 and appointed to the Salt Lake City post in November 1994.

Niederauer, who was the eighth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, will be installed as San Francisco's archbishop Feb. 15, 2006, a news release on the web site of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City states.

When he leaves Utah, six local Catholic priests will meet and elect a priest to serve as the administrator to lead Utah's 200,000-member diocese until a new bishop is selected, diocesan spokeswoman Monica Howa-Johnson said.

The Vatican will then appoint a new Bishop for Utah, but that process could take a long time, she said.

"The last time we got a new bishop, it took a year," Howa-Johnson said. "I'm glad it's a lengthy process. They really take their time to find the right person."