23 December 2007

Overview: Province of Alaska

The province of Alaska has Anchorage as the metropolitan with Fairbanks and Juneau as Suffragans.

Archbishop Roger Lawrence Schwietz, O.M.I. (67) just celebrated 40 years as a priest last Thursday. It seems likely that he will remain in his current post.

Bishop Donald Joseph Kettler (63) has been serving as Bishop of Fairbanks for over 5 years. He is the diocese's 8th ordinary and none of them have been transferred. If Bishop Kettler were to be the first it would likely be in the next year or two. But there is no indication that he'll break the trend.

The diocese of Juneau recently became vacant as Bishop Michael William Warfel was named Bishop of Great Falls-Billings, Montana last month. Hopefully a replacement will be named in the coming year, but given the current backlog, 2009 seems more likely.

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