Alejandro Salazar (born November 28, 1949) is a

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

n-born American prelate of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. Salazar served as an auxiliary bishop of the

Archdiocese of Los Angeles The Archdiocese of Los Angeles ( la, Archidiœcesis Angelorum in California, es, Arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles) is an ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church (Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites, particularly ...

from 2004 to 2018. He resigned as auxiliary bishop in 2018 after a sexual misconduct charge against him was deemed credible by the archdiocese and the Vatican.

Biography

Early life

Salazar was born in San José,

, but moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1953. He attended

Daniel Murphy High School Daniel Murphy High School was a Catholic all-boys high school located in Los Angeles, California. It was located in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. History Daniel Murphy High School was originally the home of Los Angeles College, a Catholic jun ...

in Los Angeles, then entered

East Los Angeles College East Los Angeles College (ELAC) is a public community college in Monterey Park, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. It is part of the California Community Colleges System and the Los Angeles Community College District. With fourteen communitie ...

in Monterey Park, California. Salazar then attended

California State University, Los Angeles California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA) is a public university in Los Angeles, California. It is part of the 23-campus California State University (CSU) system. Cal State LA offers 142 bachelor's degrees, 122 master's degrees, ...

and

Immaculate Heart College Immaculate Heart College was a private, Catholic college located in Los Angeles, California. The college offered various courses including art and religious education studies. By June 1906, six young women had become the first graduates of the ...

in Los Angeles, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

studies in 1978. From 1968 to 1979, Salazar taught at St. Albert the Great School in

Compton, California Compton is a city in southern Los Angeles County, California, United States, situated south of downtown Los Angeles. Compton is one of the oldest cities in the county and, on May 11, 1888, was the eighth city in Los Angeles County to incorporat ...

. In 1977, Salazar entered St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, California.

Priesthood

Salazar was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles by Cardinal Timothy Manning on June 16, 1984. After his ordination, Salazar served as

associate pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

at the following parishes in Southern California: * St. Gregory the Great in Whittier * Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. ...

* and the Cathedral of St. Vibiana Parish in Los Angeles In 1995, Salazar was appointed

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in

Silverlake, California Silver Lake is a residential and commercial neighborhood in the east- central region of Los Angeles, California. Originally home to a small community called Ivanhoe in honor of Sir Walter Scott. In 1907, the Los Angeles Water Department built t ...

, assigned there until 2004. He also served as

dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

of Deanery 14, and as a member of the Council of Priests, the College of

Consultor A consultor is one who gives counsel, i.e., a counselor. In the Catholic Church, it is a specific title for various advisory positions: *in the Roman Curia, a consultor is a specially appointed expert who may be called upon for advice desired by ...

s, the

Clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

Pension A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

Board, and the Archdiocesan Personnel Board. In 2003, Salazar was named vice-

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

of the archdiocese and honorary chaplain of his holiness.

Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles

On September 7, 2004,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed Salazar as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and titular bishop of Nesqually. He was consecrated at the

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels ( es, Catedral de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles), informally known as COLA or the Los Angeles Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Roman Catholic Church in Los Angeles, California, United States. It opened in 2 ...

in Los Angeles on November 4, 2004 by Cardinal

Roger Mahony Roger Michael Mahony (born February 27, 1936) is an American cardinal and retired prelate of the Catholic Church who served as Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011. Before his appointment, he served as Auxiliary Bishop of Fresno from 1 ...

, with Bishops

Gabino Zavala Gabino Zavala (born September 7, 1951) is a Mexican-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Zavala served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 1994 until 2012. Zavala resigned at the request of Pope Benedi ...

and Gustavo Garcia-Siller serving as co-consecrators. Salazar selected as his episcopal

motto A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...

: "Do What Jesus Tells You" (

John 2 John 2 is the second chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains the famous stories of the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine and Jesus expelling the money changers from the Temple. The author of ...

:5). According to a 2018 statement by Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, a person accused Salazar of sexual misconduct during the 1990s when Salazar was a parish priest in Pasadena. Salazar denied any wrongdoing. In 2002, the claimant reported their allegations to the Pasadena Police Department; after an investigation, the district attorney declined to press criminal charges against Salazar. When Cardinal Mahony learned about the accusations against Salazar in 2005, he submitted them to the

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) is the oldest among the departments of the Roman Curia. Its seat is the Palace of the Holy Office in Rome. It was founded to defend the Catholic Church from Heresy in Christianity, heresy and is ...

in Rome while allowing him to still perform ministry. The Congregation then "conducted an investigation and imposed certain precautionary measures on the ministry of Bishop Salazar" in 2005. Mahony also requested another review by the Pasadena district attorney, who again declined to indict Salazar. After Gomez became archbishop in 2011, he submitted the Salazar case to the Archdiocesan Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board. It recommended suspending Salazar from any ministerial functions. Gomez then forwarded these findings and his own recommendations on Salazar to

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

Resignation

accepted Salazar's letter of resignation as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles on December 19, 2018. It was submitted before the mandatory age 75 limit.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salazar, Alejandro 1949 births Living people People from San José, Costa Rica Costa Rican emigrants to the United States California State University, Los Angeles alumni Immaculate Heart College alumni St. John's Seminary (California) alumni Roman Catholic bishops of Nesqually Costa Rican religious leaders 21st-century American Roman Catholic titular bishops