LV bishop handed new assignment

Stacy J. Willis

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 | 11:17 a.m.

Las Vegas Bishop Daniel Walsh was assigned by the Pope this morning to take over a scandal-ridden California diocese.

Walsh, 62, will begin leading the Santa Rosa, Calif., diocese in May. Pope John Paul II has yet to assign a new bishop to Las Vegas.

Walsh will replace Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, who was forced to resign in July, after a priest filed a lawsuit claiming Ziemann had coerced him into sex. The bishop admitted to consensual sex before resigning.

Walsh, known for a firm but friendly leadership style, has been the bishop of the Diocese of Las Vegas since its creation in 1995. During Walsh's tenure the diocese has become the fastest-growing Roman Catholic diocese in the nation.

In 1995 there were about 250,000 Catholics in the region; today there are more than 391,000. In that time, Walsh started six new parishes without the addition of new priests -- the number of priests has remained steady at about 75, according to diocese officials.

Under Walsh's guidance the Las Vegas Catholic community has survived several scandals of its own. Most notably, a teacher at Bishop Gorman Catholic High School was arrested in 1997 on 13 counts of sexual misconduct with students.

Walsh was in California this morning and could not be reached for comment, but in a recent interview with the Sun he reflected on his strengths and weaknesses as a leader. "My strengths are, I'm not afraid of making a decision. I'm firm," he said, sitting in his book-lined office under a gold-plated statue of Christ. "I believe obedience is a wonderful virtue. I believe goodwill is expressed to me through my superiors. I've made a life of service to people and the church, and I've never regretted it.

"I understand that people can get upset when they don't understand all the reasons I sometimes do things. But you can't be influenced by that.

"My main faults are that I probably don't thank people enough. We have thousands of wonderful people doing such marvelous work in these parishes. I never take enough time to thank them."

Walsh was born and raised in San Francisco and was ordained as a priest in 1963. In 1987, he was assigned as bishop of the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas, which later split into separate diocese. Although diocese officials said the reassignment to Santa Rosa took Walsh by surprise, it will bring Walsh closer to his relatives in San Francisco.

"The greatest treat I can give myself is to get back to the Bay area to visit my family," Walsh said earlier this year.

Walsh issued a letter to parishioners in Las Vegas upon being reassigned that asked for forgiveness "for anyone whom I have hurt or offended in any way."

Word of Walsh's reassignment had just begun spreading throughout the Las Vegas Catholic community this morning. But the Rev. Bede Wevita, a priest in northwest Las Vegas and a spokesman for the diocese, said that Walsh will be missed by his colleagues and the community.

"As a bishop he has been well-liked and firm in his teachings. I do think that will serve him well in Santa Rosa. He is a man of wisdom, and it is a bad time and a sad time in Santa Rosa, and I think he is very capable of handling that," said Wevita.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.