Pope Names Auxiliary Bishop Tyson of Seattle to Succeed Bishop Carlos Sevilla of Yakima, Washington
WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has named Auxiliary Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Seattle,53, to succeed Bishop Carlos Sevilla of Yakima, Washington, 75, and accepted the resignation of Bishop Sevilla from the pastoral governance of the diocese.
WASHINGTON—Pope Benedict XVI has named Auxiliary Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Seattle,53, to succeed Bishop Carlos Sevilla of Yakima, Washington, 75, and accepted the resignation of Bishop Sevilla from the pastoral governance of the diocese.
The appointment and resignation acceptance were publicized in Washington, April 12, by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States.
Joseph J. Tyson was born October 16, 1957, at Moses Lake, Washington. He attended Shoreline Community College in Seattle and the University of Washington, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in international studies. He earned a Master of Divinity degree from The Catholic University of America and was ordained a priest for the Seattle Archdiocese in 1989. Following ordination he served in St. Louise Parish, Bellevue, Washington, 1989-1991; St. James Cathedral, Seattle, 1991-1992; St. Mary of the Valley Parish, Monroe, Washington, 1992-1996; and as pastor of St. Edward Parish in Seattle with responsibility of two other Seattle parishes, St. George and St. Paul, 1996-2005. In 2005, Pope Benedict named him an auxiliary bishop of Seattle.
Bishop Sevilla was born in San Francisco, August 9, 1935, and entered the novitiate of the San Francisco Province of the Society of Jesus in 1953. In 1960, he was awarded a Licentiate
and a Master’s degree in philosophy from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington. He also
holds a Licentiate and Master’s degree in theology from Santa Clara University, and pursued advanced studies in Christian worship at the Catholic Institute of Paris.
He was ordained priest in 1966. Assignments after ordination included serving on the faculty of Loyola-Marymount University, 1972-1980; director of Spiritual Renewal for the California Province of Jesuits, 1981-1986; and director of formation for the California Jesuits, 1986-88.
He was named an auxiliary bishop of San Francisco in 1988, and bishop of Yakima in 1996.
The Yakima Diocese includes 17,787 square miles, with 649,846 people, of which 12 percent, or 78,317, of them are Catholic.
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