Pope Francis has named Father John Doerfler, 49, a priest of the Diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and vicar general of the diocese, as bishop of Marquette, Michigan. He succeeds Archbishop Alexander Sample, who became archbishop of Portland in Oregon, January 29, 2013.
John Doerfler was born November 2, 1964, and was ordained a priest for the Green Bay Diocese in 1991. He holds a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy from the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota; and a bachelor of theology from the Gregorian University, Rome. He holds a licentiate in Canon Law from The Catholic University of America and a licentiate and doctorate from the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family, Washington.
He has written on medical ethics and reproductive technology for “The Linacre Quarterly,” a journal; and “Ethics and Medics,” a commentary of the National Catholic Bioethics Center.
The Marquette diocese includes 16,281 square miles across Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It has a population of 311,629 people, with 48,207, or 15 percent of them, Catholic.
