Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop Sylvester D. Ryan of Monterey and has appointed Auxiliary Bishop Richard J. Garcia of Sacramento as his successor.

The changes were announced in Washington Dec. 19 by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Ryan, ordained for the Los Angeles Archdiocese in 1957 and then an L.A. auxiliary bishop, has been head of the Monterey Diocese since 1992. Canon law asks all bishops to submit their resignation to the pope when they turn 75, which Bishop Ryan did in September 2005 .

Bishop Garcia, 59, was ordained an auxiliary for Sacramento in January 1998. He is one of 25 active Hispanic bishops in the United States, and will be the 11th active Hispanic bishop to head a diocese.

Bishop Garcia is scheduled to be installed as Bishop of Monterey on Jan. 30, 2007 in a Mass to be held at the Monterey Conference Center, with Cardinal Roger Mahony presiding.

"Bishop Richard Garcia is a most capable bishop, and will serve the people of Monterey --- a vital and historic see in our state --- with zeal and commitment," said Cardinal Mahony. "I also welcome him most eagerly to the Province of Los Angeles, and we all look forward to collaborating with him in the service of God's People throughout the province.

"Given our large Hispanic Catholic population in California, it is a good sign that another Hispanic bishop now heads a diocese here in our state. May Blessed Junípero Serra be his special patron and guide as Bishop Garcia begins his special ministry of leadership in the Diocese of Monterey."

The Monterey Diocese, part of the Los Angeles Province, was established in 1967, and comprises the counties of Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo and Santa Cruz. It has a Catholic population of about 300,000 out of a total population of 976,000.

Bishop Ryan, born in Avalon on Santa Catalina Island, was ordained a priest May 3, 1957, after studies at Long Beach City College, Los Angeles College Seminary and St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. He has a master's degree in religious education from Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles.

As a priest, he served as principal of Paraclete and St. Paul High Schools and as pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Tujunga. He was rector of St. John's Seminary College when he was named an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles in February 1990, and was installed that May with Bishop Stephen E. Blaire, now bishop of Stockton.

As an auxiliary, Bishop Ryan was Secretariat Director of Ministerial Services and Ethnic Ministries. As bishop of Monterey, he served two three-year terms as president of the California Bishops Conference (1998-2004).

In the late 1990s, when the United Farm Workers were in the midst of a bitter battle to unionize some 12,000 workers in the area's strawberry fields, Bishop Ryan tried unsuccessfully to mediate the dispute between the union and the growers. Three-fourths of the nation's strawberries are grown in the Monterey Diocese.

In a 1997 statement later quoted by the bishops of California and the then-Administrative Board of the U.S. bishops' conference, Bishop Ryan wrote that there was "a stark and alarming contrast" between the just treatment of workers on some farms and "an array of abuses" on others.

"It is clear there are employers and growers who consistently violate the rights of workers in the worst possible way," he wrote. "I believe it is urgent and critical to state clearly the principles of social justice that must shape the atmosphere." Eventually the union won contracts with two of the largest strawberry growers in the area.

Over the past nine years Bishop Garcia has served as moderator of the curia of the Sacramento Diocese and as vicar for Hispanics and other ethnic ministries in the diocese. He is well known there for his strong commitment to Spanish-speaking Catholics, new immigrants, migrant workers, youths and inmates in state prisons.

"Since he speaks English and Spanish fluently, he will fit well into our Anglo and Hispanic populations, along with the other cultural traditions and peoples who are significant in both our history and contemporary diocesan life," Bishop Ryan said.

He added that Bishop Garcia "has been deeply engaged in the promotion of social justice for the good of all peoples and communities, especially with a strong concern for the poor and needy."

Richard John Garcia was born in San Francisco April 24, 1947, and was ordained a priest of the San Francisco Archdiocese in 1973 after studies at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, Calif. Both his parents were born in Mexico but had immigrated with their families when they were children.

When the San Francisco Archdiocese was split in 1981 to create the new Diocese of San Jose, Calif., then-Father Garcia, who had been serving in the San Jose area, became one of the priests of the new diocese. At that time he was studying for an advanced degree in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome.

From 1985 to 1992 he taught at St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park and at St. Joseph's College, a now-closed college seminary in Santa Clara, Calif. From 1992 until late 1997, when he was named a bishop, he was diocesan director of vocations, and from 1995 to 1997 he was also pastor of St. Leo the Great Parish in San Jose.

He is a member of the National Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, which is involved in research and dialogue on the growing use of so-called "factory farms," where large numbers of animals are concentrated in a small area. He was a member of the bishops' Ad Hoc Committee on Agricultural Issues and is on the board of directors of the National Catholic Rural Life Conference.

On the state level he is on the California bishops' steering committee on prison ministry and corrections.

As a member of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, in 2000 he was part of a group of bishops that traveled to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to examine migration problems facing thousands of Central Americans.

The delegation subsequently denounced the inhumane treatment of migrants who were apprehended in a U.S.-supported regional initiative targeting human smugglers.

---CNS Contributing to this story were Julie Sly in Sacramento, Jerry Filteau in Washington and Mike Nelson in Los Angeles.