News: Bishop Emeritus Richard Pates named apostolic administrator for Crookston

April 13, 2021

Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Michael Hoeppner of the Diocese of Crookston and has appointed Bishop Emeritus Richard E. Pates as the apostolic administrator sede vacante.

Bishop Pates, a former auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, was named bishop for the Diocese of Des Moines on April 10, 2008. He was installed May 29, 2008 and served until Bishop William Joensen was installed on Sept. 27, 2019. 

Just a few months after retiring, on Dec. 27, 2019, he was named apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Joliet, Illinois, where he served until the installation of Bishop Ronald Hicks until last September. 

The resignation of bishop Hoeppner and appointment of Bishop Pates were publicized in Washington, D.C. on April 13 by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The Diocese of Crookston is comprised of 17,210 square miles in the state of Minnesota and has a total population of 277,689, of which 34,649 are Catholic.