Retired Bishop Moreno of Tucson dies at age 75

Published: 2006-11-20

TUCSON, Ariz. (CNS) -- Retired Tucson Bishop Manuel D. Moreno, 75, died at his home Nov. 17, hours after returning there from a Phoenix hospital where he had undergone surgery for bleeding in his brain. His funeral Mass was scheduled for Nov. 21 at Tucson's St. Augustine Cathedral, followed by burial in Holy Hope Cemetery. Bishop Moreno, the child of Mexican migrant farmworkers who emphasized the importance of education, had been one of the first Hispanic bishops in the United States. He worked with his father, Antonio Moreno, in California's fruit and nut groves and packing warehouses while attending school in Fullerton, Calif. Bishop Moreno had cited his prostate cancer and Parkinson's disease as reasons for his retirement in 2003 at age 72, three years before the age at which bishops are required by canon law to submit their resignations to the pope. After serving as coadjutor since October 2001, Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, a former auxiliary bishop in Chicago, became bishop of Tucson.

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