January 12, 2009

Bishop Carlson celebrates 25th anniversary




BAY CITY - Around 800 people packed inside St. Stanislaus Kostka Church on Sunday to celebrate a special Mass of Thanksgiving in honor the 25th anniversary of Bishop Robert J. Carlson's Episcopal ordination.
Among the event's highlights was Detroit Archbishop Cardinal Adam Maida's reading of a congratulatory letter from Pope Benedict XVI. Also in attendance was Cardinal Edmund Szoka, president emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State and six other bishops.

A priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis since is ordination on May 1979, Carlson was consecrated as a bishop on January 11, 1984 by Archbishop John R. Roach, Bishop John F. Kinney, and Bishop Paul V. Dudley at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, Minn., to serve as and auxiliary bishop in the archdiocese and Titular Bishop of Avioccala.

Bishop Carlson, 64, ministered in his home archdiocese until he was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, S.D., in January 1994. He later succeeded Bishop Dudley as the seventh bishop of Sioux Falls in March 1995.

In December 2004, Bishop Carlson was re-appointed to the Diocese of Saginaw by Pope John Paul II. He has served as the fifth bishop of Saginaw since his installation at the Cathedral of Mary of the Assumption in Saginaw on February 24, 2005.
Read more about Bishop Carlson's 25th anniversary in the next issue of FAITH Saginaw.