Pope Names 2 Priests as Auxiliary Bishops

Msgr. Edward W. Clark, a priest, scholar and seminary president, has been named an auxiliary bishop in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Pope John Paul II.

The pope also appointed another Los Angeles priest, Msgr. Dennis P. O’Neil, as auxiliary bishop in the neighboring Diocese of San Bernardino. Auxiliary bishops serve under a bishop or archbishop, who is the highest authority in a diocese or archdiocese.

The papal appointments were announced Tuesday by Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, archbishop of Los Angeles, and by Bishop Gerald R. Barnes of San Bernardino. Clark, 54, will report to Mahony. O’Neil will report to Barnes.

Both new bishops, Mahony said, “possess unique and extraordinary gifts and talents.”

O’Neil, whose appointment was announced on his 61st birthday, is pastor of St. Emydius Church in Lynwood. He was formerly pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, where he was active in reaching out to immigrants in the largely Latino Pico-Union neighborhood.

Move Fills 2-Year Vacancy

Clark’s appointment fills a two-year-old vacancy in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, the nation’s largest. Mahony said Clark will oversee one of the sprawling archdiocese’s most ethnically diverse regions, known as the Pastoral Region of Our Lady of the Angels. It stretches from poor parishes west of downtown to the wealthy ones of Malibu, and is home to a variety of races and ethnicities.

“The just expectations of the church, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and the people of God do fill me with apprehension as I contemplate the responsibilities that lie before me,” Clark said at a news conference Tuesday at the church’s headquarters on Wilshire Boulevard. “But I am consoled that I will not bear these responsibilities alone. It is the whole people of God together who bear them.”

Clark seemed a bit nervous as he was introduced, but a sense of humor served him well. When he was asked what “five great Catholic ideas” he referred to in a book of the same title that he wrote, Clark recalled just two.

“I should have prepped myself,” he grinned. “I wrote the book three years ago. The book’s on sale at the local Catholic bookstore.”

When Clark was asked whether the priests who will serve under him had read his book, Mahony interjected, “They’re reading it right now!”

He Hopes to Celebrate Ethnic Diversity

Clark, an Anglo, said that he hoped the people of the ethnically diverse region would welcome his new service. He said celebrating ethnic diversity had been a “hallmark” of his presidency of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, where seminarians from Latino, Southeast Asian and Filipino extractions outnumber those of a Northern European background.

“Their life stories often reflect not only persistence and the struggle to overcome disadvantage, but even heroic valor in the face of oppression,” Clark said. “They are a sign of great hope for the future of the church.”

When reading his prepared statement in Spanish, Clark spoke with a noticeable Anglo accent. But he said he would make it a priority to speak Spanish fluently.

A native of Minneapolis, Clark was ordained a priest in Los Angeles in 1972 after completing studies at St. John’s. In 1988, he received his doctorate in sacred theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. His assignments have included associate pastorates at St. James Church, Redondo Beach; St. Joseph Church, Pomona, and Transfiguration Church, Los Angeles.

He also taught at Pomona Catholic High School, served as vice principal of Bishop Amat High School in La Puente, and was principal of Paraclete High School in Palmdale.

Clark has assisted in services on weekends for 13 years at Transfiguration, a predominately African American congregation, where he said parishioners are “brother and sister to me.”

“I love the diversity of the archdiocese, in particular the richness of cultures and the ethnic diversity of its communities,” Clark said.

Clark will be ordained bishop March 26 at St. John Chrysostom Church in Inglewood. O’Neil will be ordained the next day at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Chino Hills.