San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano (Photo by Chris Stone/Times of San Diego)
Pope Leo XIV has appointed San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano as the next bishop of the Diocese of Monterey, the Vatican announced this week.
Bejarano, 56, has served as an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Diego and as titular bishop of Carpi since 2020, according to the Diocese of San Diego’s website.
San Diego Bishop Michael Pham praised Bejarano’s service, calling him “a gentle soul and a strong advocate for peace and justice.”
While the San Diego diocese will “lose a wonderful person,” Pham said, Monterey “will gain a bishop who has the heart of the Good Shepherd.”
Bejarano succeeds Bishop Daniel E. Garcia, who was appointed bishop of Austin, Texas, in July. The Monterey diocese, which spans 21,916 square miles along California’s Central Coast, serves about 368,150 Catholics among a total population of roughly 1.04 million.
Born in Texas and raised partly in Mexico, Bejarano later moved to California’s Central Valley, where he worked in the fields and in maintenance at a hotel to support his family before entering the seminary, according to the Diocese of San Diego’s website.
Ordained a priest in 1998 for the Diocese of Stockton, Bejarano has overseen ministries for ethnic and intercultural communities, life, peace and justice, and ecumenical and interreligious affairs in San Diego.
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