Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., is the new president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, having been vice president of the USCCB under Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill., the past three years.

Bishop Skylstad, 70, has been a bishop since 1977, when he was installed as head the Diocese of Yakima, Wash. He was named to head the Spokane Diocese in March 1990.

Less than two weeks before his election this week, Bishop Skylstad announced, after a collapse of mediation efforts with clergy sexual abuse victims in the Spokane Diocese, that the diocese would enter Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection proceedings by Nov. 29 to deal as fairly as possible with all abuse victims.

That decision --- making Spokane the third U.S. diocese to announce bankruptcy proceedings, after Portland, Ore., and Tucson, Ariz. --- led to wide media speculation that Bishop Skylstad might withdraw from candidacy or not be elected, despite the bishops' usual practice of electing their vice president to the presidency.

In his comments to the bishops following his election, he said that "it would be easy to be intimidated by the challenges" they face, "but I take comfort in the fact that while no one of us has all the wisdom ... we together can look forward to the future with hope and joy."

"In facing the future," he added, "our unity as a conference, our relationships with one another and our relationship with the Holy See and the universal church will remain essential to our faithful service to the church and to the world's recognizing that we are truly Christ's disciples. Our unity with our priests and our support for them in their ministry, especially given the events of the last three years, are particularly important in facing the future with confidence."

An experienced ecumenist and articulator of Catholic social policy, Bishop Skylstad is also known for his outreach to Hispanic migrant farmworkers.

He has been Catholic co-chairman of the U.S. Catholic-Methodist theological dialogue and headed the U.S. bishops' Committee on Domestic Policy.

He was a key figure in the development of the 2001 environmental pastoral letter titled "The Columbia River Watershed: Caring for the Common Good," by 12 Catholic bishops of the U.S. Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, Canada.

As chairman of the bishops' Committee on Domestic Policy in the late 1990s, he took strong stands opposing capital punishment, even in the case of Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted of the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people.

"Our passions cry out for vengeance" against McVeigh, he said in 1997. "However, we as bishops believe that to execute Mr. McVeigh would tragically perpetuate a terrible cycle of violence and further diminish respect for life."

Under Bishop Skylstad, the domestic policy committee also issued statements supporting a higher minimum wage and opposing cutbacks in welfare benefits.

He headed a subcommittee of that committee which drafted guidelines for practices to be observed in Catholic-related hospitals where employees were trying to unionize. Those guidelines had a significant impact on labor relations in a number of Catholic hospitals in California.

The subcommittee's 1999 working paper, "A Fair and Just Workplace," recommended establishing an environment, free of pressure, intimidation, false information or misleading claims, in which workers can make an informed, free choice about whether to be represented by a union or not.

The subcommittee membership included bishops, union representatives, Catholic health administrators and women religious. In presenting the working paper, Bishop Skylstad expressed hope that it "may be a road map for avoiding future conflict" in Catholic health facilities.

During his term as co-chairman of the U.S. Catholic-Methodist Dialogue, the group issued a 64-page guide of dialogue themes, common prayer, Bible study and resources for joint activities for use by local Catholic and Methodist congregations.

Bishop Skylstad has been a supporter of getting local congregations involved in ecumenical dialogue so that people at the parish level can be "very up front and honest" about issues and obstacles to unity.

Bishop Skylstad was born March 2, 1934, in Omak, Wash. He graduated from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1960 for the Spokane Diocese.

---CNS