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Bishop Ricardo Ramirez
Nearly 16 months after announcing he would retire as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, Bishop Ricardo Ramirez is expected to announce the name of his successor at 10 a.m. today in the foyer of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.
“The Vatican has not released any names to us at all,” diocesan spokeswoman Susan Roberts said of Ramirez’s replacement. “We will be just as interested as everyone else to learn who our new bishop will be.”
Ramirez was the first and has been the only bishop of the Diocese of Las Cruces, appointed by Pope John Paul II in 1982, the Sun-News said.
The Diocese of Las Cruces covers 45,000 square miles — essentially the size of the state of Pennsylvania — and includes 45 parishes and 44 missions, the paper reported. It includes 10 New Mexico counties from the Arizona border to the Texas state line.
Ramirez will continue to live in Las Cruces and assist the new bishop and the diocese if called upon, Roberts told the Sun-News.
