San Diego Catholic bishop has advanced cancer

Roman Catholic Bishop Cirilo Flores has advanced cancer and is being transferred to Nazareth House senior living center to receive palliative care, the Diocese of San Diego announced Wednesday.

“The cancer is widespread, very advanced and very aggressive,” according to a statement issued by Msgr. Steven Callahan. “Unfortunately, Bishop Flores is not a candidate for chemotherapy because of his very weak condition and the advanced stage of the disease.”

Last week, the diocese announced that Flores, 66, who suffered a stroke in April, was being treated for prostate cancer at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles.

Flores will be transferred Friday to Nazareth House, located in the Mission Valley area of San Diego. Nazareth House is owned and operated by the Sisters of Nazareth, a Catholic religious order.

Palliative care is designed to provide comfort for those with advanced illness. The origin of the cancer is unknown but it appears to be mainly in Flores’ bones, according to the diocese statement.

Flores has been bishop in San Diego since September 2013.

A native of Corona, he received a bachelor’s degree from Loyola Marymount University and then a law degree from Stanford. He practiced law for a decade in Riverside and Los Angeles counties before being ordained in 1991 as a priest in the Diocese of Orange.

After serving in several posts in Orange County, he was named as coadjutor bishop in San Diego by Pope Benedict XVI in January 2012. In September 2013, as planned, he became the fifth bishop of the San Diego Diocese, succeeding Bishop Robert Brom, who retired.

“While priests, deacons, religious and laity may wish to reach out to Bishop Flores during this difficult time, it is in his best interest and better for his care and well-being that we not try to contact Bishop Flores by phone nor attempt to visit him,” according to the statement issued Wednesday.

“Let us continue to keep Bishop Flores in our prayers.”