The Vatican announced today that Bishop Donald Pelotte, who had been on a one-year medical leave of absence from the Diocese of Gallup, has asked to resign and Pope Benedict XVI has accepted his resignation, The Associated Press reported.

The Vatican's announcement did not elaborate why the 63-year-old Pelotte resigned, the AP reported.

Bishop Pelotte was granted a medical leave of absence in January, and Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of the Diocese of Phoenix was named apostolic administrator of the Gallup diocese, according to earlier reports.

At the time, Diocese of Gallup spokesman Matt Doyle said Olmsted would serve in that position until Pelotte was able to return or Pelotte's successor is appointed or installed.

Pelotte had been recovering from head trauma he received in an apparent fall at his home in Gallup last July.

Despite speculation that Pelotte may have been assaulted, he and diocesan officials insisted that he was injured when he fell down a flight of stairs at his home, the AP has reported.

After receiving treatment in Arizona, Texas and Florida, Pelotte returned to Gallup Sept. 21, but left Gallup again for further medical treatment on Dec. 13, the AP said.

It was shortly after his return to Gallup last September, that the bishop called police to report that intruders had come to his home and refused to leave, according to another AP story.

Although parts of the police report were deleted for reasons of medical confidentiality, there were reports at the time that Pelotte described the intruders as being only 2 or 3 feet tall.

Pelotte, whose father was an Abenaki Indian, became the first Native American to become a Roman Catholic bishop, when he was ordained on May 6, 1986.

Another prominent Native American prelate, Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver, was ordained bishop on July 26, 1988, after being appointed head of the Diocese of Rapid City, S.D. 

Ordained a priest in 1972, Pelotte came to Gallup in 1986 as coadjutor bishop in 1986, then the diocese's third bishop in 1990 when his predecessor, Bishop Jerome Hastrich, retired.

Pelotte's ordination as a bishop came on May 6, 1986, making him the  

The Diocese of Gallup is one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States, encompassing all of San Juan and McKinley counties in New Mexico as well as most of northeastern Arizona. 

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