Pope Francis has made three significant episcopal appointments in the United States, including the second Filipino-American priest to be made a bishop.
Msgr Alejandro Aclan, 68, born in Pasay City in the Philippines, has been named as new auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles.
The bishop-elect did his university degree, in medical technology, in Manila and emigrated to the United States in 1982, in search of a "better future", the Los Angeles diocesan newspaper Angelus reports. He worked in banking until following his vocation in his mid-30s.
Ordained in 1993, he has served as a priests since in Los Angeles, most recently as vicar for the clergy, and then took a brief sabbatical. He is fluent in English, Tagalog and Spanish.
Angelus reports: "Aclan’s nomination makes him the second Filipino-American priest to be named bishop in the U.S. The first was Bishop Oscar Solis, who served as an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles from 2004 until 2017, before Pope Francis named him Bishop of Salt Lake City. The Los Angeles area is home to the largest Filipino immigrant community in the United States."
Archbishop of Los Angeles José Gomez said: "Bishop-elect Aclan is a man of prayer and he has a true heart for Jesus – and a deep concern for the people he is called to serve. And I know he will be a voice for Filipino Catholics, who are a beautiful sign of growth and renewal in our Church here in Los Angeles and throughout the country."
At the same time, Pope Francis announced that an existing auxiliary, Bishop Joseph Brennan, is to become next Bishop of Fresno, succeeding Armando Ochoa who has resigned.
Bishop of Alexandria in Louisiana, David Talley, has been appointed Bishop of Memphis, succeeding Bishop Martin Holley who was removed last October.
Rocco Palmo reported that this was Pope Francis "moving quickly to remedy the damage of a disastrous tenure that left West Tennessee's Catholic community wounded and reeling" and that the Pope had unleashed "the most potent option to heal and restore the diocese of Memphis – and to get cracking with all possible speed".
Describing Talley, 68, as "hyper-relational" and the Memphis community as a "a vibrant, tight-knit church with an extraordinary record of activism and service", Palmo says he arrives at Graceland as "a unifier with a mammoth degree of regard across all sorts of divides".
He notes that Talley is an adult convert with his roots in the Southern Baptist church and has been been dubbed "The Tazmanian Devil" for his "whirlwind" activity.
While all three appointments were broadly welcomed across social and other media, Palmo also notes that Pope Francis' choice of the next Archbishop of Washington "still hangs like a sword over the rest of the docket".
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