Pope appoints Indiana native as new bishop in St. Cloud

The Diocese of St. Cloud has a new bishop.

Pope Francis has appointed the Rev. Patrick Neary to succeed Bishop Donald Kettler, church officials announced Thursday.

"I felt overwhelmed, to say the least, at being asked to be the bishop here. I never expected this invitation," Neary, 59, said at a press conference at St. Cloud's Diocesan Pastoral Center.

The call was so unexpected, in fact, that he ignored four phone calls from Washington, D.C., and ended up blocking the caller, thinking it was spam. The Apostolic Nuncio, the Holy See's diplomat here in the U.S., "got through to me on WhatsApp," Neary said.

He's set to be ordained and installed as bishop of St. Cloud on Feb. 14. The diocese includes 131 parishes among an estimated Catholic population of 125,000.

Neary, who was born in 1963 in La Porte, Ind., and is pastor at Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Ore., said he was glad to be returning to the Upper Midwest.

"I'm really happy I landed in Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes, because I am a fisherman," he said. As a kid, a buddy would visit the state for fishing trips with his family, and Neary said he wished he could have tagged along. "Now I've got the lakes right here at my side," he said.

Still, he did need to make a few things clear: "I'm a Cubs fan. I can say that upfront," he said.

The eldest of six, Neary graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1985. A member of the Congregation of Holy Cross, he received a master's in divinity from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., before being ordained in 1991. He served in Kenya and Uganda before moving to his position in Portland in 2018. A Spanish speaker after studies in Latin America, Neary gave a greeting in Spanish during the conference.

Bishop Kettler said it was "a happy day," acknowledging that he'd been waiting to learn who his successor would be so that he could retire.

"When you're 75, you send a letter to the Holy Father telling him you're 75 and then you wonder for a while whether he got your letter," said Kettler, who is 78. "But I'm so pleased with the selection and the background and the wisdom and the experiences of Bishop-elect Patrick that the wait was well worthwhile."

Kettler's nine-year tenure as St. Cloud's bishop included the diocese's most painful moments, including a $22.5 million settlement in 2020 with about 70 survivors of clergy sexual abuse and former priest Anthony Oelrich's 2018 arrest and subsequent prison sentence for criminal sexual conduct.

Neary said he had reviewed the diocese's response to clergy abuse and was "grateful for the steps that have been taken to address this incredibly difficult matter," he said.

His "number one priority" when he begins as bishop will be visiting every parish to get to know all of the priests and deacons, he said.