Pope Francis appointed Bishop John P. Dolan to lead the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, Arizona on Friday.
Dolan, 60, succeeds Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, whose resignation was accepted on June 10, after turning 75, the usual age of retirement for bishops.
Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. and the diocese serves 1.2 million Catholics. Bishop Dolan will begin his assignment in early August.
He was a parish priest for 27 years before he was appointed as auxiliary bishop.
He has served as vicar general and moderator of the curia. As vicar for clergy, he also assisted McElroy in the assignment of priests in San Diego’s 98 parishes.
“I cannot begin to express my thanks to God for his goodness to me throughout my life and I enter this new chapter with a renewed commitment to love and serve the Lord and His Church with my whole heart, soul, and strength,” Bishop Dolan said in a June 10 press release.
The Phoenix bishop-elect was also known in San Diego for his support of refugees, in particular the Lost Boys of Sudan, a group of more than 20,000 boys from the Nuer and Dinka ethnic groups who were orphaned or left home during the Second Sudanese Civil War.