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A couple of Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States received new bishops this week, but the Catholic Diocese of El Paso wasn’t one of them, television station KVIA ABC-7 reported.
Bishop Armando X. Ochoa, who headed El Paso’s diocese for 15 years before being assigned to Fresno, Calif., in December 2011 by then-Pope Benedict XVI, has been overseeing both dioceses since that time, KVIA said.
“I would hope and pray … once again I’ll go to bed invoking our Blessed Mother, that our paperwork is going to be right in from of him (newly named Pope Francis to pick a new bishop for El Paso),” Ochoa said last month.
On Monday, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Jerome George Hanus, OSB, 72, from overseeing the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, because of health issues, and named Bishop Michael Owen Jackels, 58, of Wichita, Kan., to succeed him, according to ABC-7.
Also this week, Msgr. John Folda, 51, a seminary rector in Nebraska, was named bishop of Fargo, N.D., KVIA said.
The neighboring diocese of Las Cruces installed its new Bishop Oscar Cantu in February, the station reported.
There are currently 10 vacant bishoprics in the United States, according to KVIA.
