Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Father Rutilio J. del Riego, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Riverside, Calif., as an auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of San Bernardino. The appointment was announced in Washington July 26 by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

"Bishop-elect Rutilio del Riego's appointment is another sign of hope for the Catholic community of the Inland Empire," said Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino in a statement. "His pastoral experience and deep spirituality will make him an outstanding bishop and servant to the faithful of our diocese."

In a statement, Bishop-designate Del Riego said he believes in "a church that is open and inclusive of all peoples and cultures." He pledged to work for "unity in diversity" given the multiethnic and multilingual nature of the diocesan population.

The bishop-designate said that he also plans to promote vocations because the number of priests is lagging behind the overall Catholic population growth.

"Moreover new models of ministry and cooperation are developing to respond to the challenges of the present and the future and I believe we have to be open in our discernment and skillful in our guidance of this process," he said.

The bishop-elect was born in Valdesandinas, Spain, in 1940, came to the United States in 1964 while still a seminarian, and was ordained a priest in 1965 in Washington for the Fraternity of Diocesan Labor Priests, a Vatican-approved secular institute founded in 1885 in Spain to promote vocations.

He taught Spanish at St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., in 1966-69. From 1969 to 1973 he was director of Hispanic ministry for the Washington Archdiocese.

He worked in the San Antonio Archdiocese as vocations director (1975-78); was director of the Office for Hispanics for the Northeast Pastoral Center in New York (1978-82); and became a U.S. citizen in 1981.

From 1983 to 1994 he was a pastor in several parishes in the Diocese of El Paso, Texas. He was named director of the House of Formation of the Diocesan Laborer Priests in New York in 1994 and held the post until 1999.

In 1999 he was appointed vice rector of the Junipero Serra House, a formation center for seminarians in the San Bernardino Diocese. Bishop-designate Del Riego is a member of the diocesan priests' council.

At Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church, the bishop-elect currently pastors a parish community of English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Vietnamese and Tongan Catholics.

The San Bernardino Diocese covers 70,662 square miles in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, with a total population of 3.5 million and a Catholic population 1.2 million. The diocese is served by 244 priests, 91 permanent deacons, 280 religious, and is one of the fastest growing and most culturally diverse Catholic dioceses in the United States, said Bishop Barnes.

As the third auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of San Bernardino, Bishop-elect del Riego fills the vacancy left by Bishop Dennis O'Neil, who served as auxiliary bishop from 2001 until his death in 2003.

Upon his Sept. 20 ordination to the episcopate, Bishop-designate Del Riego will become the 25th active Hispanic bishop in the United States and the 33rd foreign-born bishop.

---CNS