Countywide : Ziemann Named Santa Rosa Bishop

Pope John Paul II on Tuesday promoted the auxiliary bishop overseeing Catholic churches in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties to be the new bishop of the Santa Rosa Diocese, said officials at the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Auxiliary Bishop G. Patrick Ziemann, 51, will move to Santa Rosa to succeed Bishop John Steinbock as head of the Santa Rosa Diocese in Northern California. Steinbock was transferred in November to the Diocese of Fresno.

Cardinal Roger Mahony, Los Angeles archbishop, said in a prepared statement that he viewed the Pope’s appointment of Ziemann “with mixed emotions; with gratitude that Bishop Ziemann now becomes a diocesan bishop with the responsibility of giving pastoral leadership to a local church, and with sadness that a wonderful and faithful son of the Archdiocese is leaving us.”

Born in Pasadena, Ziemann attended St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo before he was ordained in 1967. He taught at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana from 1971 to 1974 and served as teacher, vice rector and dean of students at Our Lady Queen of Angeles High School Seminary from 1974 to 1986, when the Pope appointed him bishop of the Santa Barbara Pastoral Region.

Ziemann, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday, has been acting as diocesan spokesman in the investigation of a Simi Valley priest who was arrested in Hollywood in May with cocaine and $10,000 in cash in a church-owned car.

The priest, Father David Piroli, has not surfaced since fleeing his parish, St. Peter Claver Church, on June 3. A few days after his disappearance, church officials found another $50,000 in cash, including charity collection envelopes, in Piroli’s rooms at the church. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.