His Imminent Excellency, Bishop Peter F. Christensen

Leibowitz'z Canticle ^ | September 12, 2007 | Leibowitz

[Bob Leibowitz]

Bishop-elect Peter F. Christensen will be ordained in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota this Friday at 2 PM. The Mass of Ordination will be officiated by Archbishop Harry Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee.

Bishop Christensen will then leave his parish, Nativity of Our Lord in St. Paul, to travel to Superior, Wisconsin for his installation next week as the tenth Bishop of Superior. He may be especially welcome in Wisconsin given he is a distant relative of former Packers coach Verne Lewellen.

Superior traces its Catholic roots to 1661, when Rene Menard, a French Jesuit, arrived in the area from Ottawa. His associate, Fr. Claude Jean Allouez built the Mission of the Holy Spirit in 1665 at the location of present day La Pointe. The Mission was the first Catholic church north of New Mexico and west of the Great Lakes. Today approximately 20% of the population is Catholic.

The newest American bishop originally trained as a commercial artist but at age 28 remembered a much earlier call from, and promise to, God. He entered the seminary and at age 32 was ordained a priest in the same cathedral in which he will now become bishop.