Coadjutor for the Twin Cities

The Holy Father has named the Bishop of New Ulm (Minnesota, USA), the Most Reverend John Clayton Nienstedt, as Coadjutor Archbishop of Minneapolis-St. Paul.

He was born in 1947 in Detroit and would study philosophy there at Sacred Heart Seminary. He studied theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University while a student at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Later he would get a Doctorate in Theology at the “Alfonsiana.”

He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1974. He served as Assistant Pastor for two years at Guardian Angels Parish in Clawson, Michigan, before returning to Rome for studies. From 1977 to 1980 he served as Secretary to the Archbishop of Detroit, John Francis Cardinal Dearden. From 1980 to 1986 he worked at the Secretariat of State in the Vatican. In 1986 he was named to be Assistant Pastor of Saint Regis Parish in Birmingham, Michigan, while also teaching at Saints Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Orchard Lake. He was then named Pastor of St. Patrick’s Parish in Union Lake. From 1987 to 1988 he was called to reorganize Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit and served there as Rector until 1994 when he was named Pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower in Royal Oak.

He was named Auxiliary Bishop for Detroit and consecrated in 1996. He became Bishop of New Ulm in 2001. He has served on the following committees within the Bishops’ Conference: Administrative Committee, Priestly Formation, Ad hoc Committee on Catholic Health Care Issues, Committee on Science and Human Values, and Ad hoc Committee Special Assembly 2007.


Today the Holy Father also named Monsignor Konrad Zdarsa, up to now the Vicar General of Dresden-Meißen, as the new Bishop of Görlitz, Germany.