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BISHOP JOHN R QUINN
The Most Rev. John R. Quinn, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of
San Diego, is the first native California to be a bishop of the Dio
cese and only the second person to hold this position. At the time
of his consecration, he was the youngest Catholic bishop in the
nation.
Bishop Quinn was appointed by Pope Paul VI on October 21,
1967. He was consecrated in St. Joseph's Cathedral, San Diego,
December 12, 1967, by the Most Rev. Luigi Raimondi, Apostolic
Delegate to the United States. Bishop Quinn took, for his motto,
the opening words of the decrees of the Second Vatican Council,
Lumen Gentium Christus,
meaning Light of the Nations. Bishop
Furey and the Most Rev. Frederick Freking, Bishop of the Diocese
of La Crosse, were the co-consecrators.
At the time of his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop, Bishop
Quinn was named Vicar General by Bishop Furey, in accordance
with the directives for the Second Vatican Council in its decree of
the Pastoral Office of Bishops.
Bishop Quinn was appointed Provost of the University of San
Diego, Alcala Park, this year by Bishop Furey. His previous posts
include the presidency of St. Francis College Seminary, to which
he was appointed in 1962, and Rector of Immaculate Heart Sem
inary, which he assumed in 1964. Prior to taking the post of col
lege president, Bishop Quinn had been professor of dogmatic
theology at Immaculate Heart.
Bishop Quinn was born in Riverside, March 28, 1929, the son of
the late Ralph J. Quinn and Elizabeth Carroll Quinn. Mrs. Quinn
now makes her home in La Mesa.
The Bishop attended St. Francis De Sales elementary school in
Riverside and Sacred Heart Preparatory High School in Watertown,
Wisconsin. He studied for the Priesthood at St. Francis Seminary
and the Immaculate Heart Seminary, El Cajon, completing his
philosophical and theological studies at the North American Col
lege and Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained to the
Priesthood in Rome on July 19, 1953. His first assignment in the
United States was as assistant pastor at St. George's Parish, in
Ontario, California, inJuly, 1954.
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