To mom, new Salt Lake City bishop will always be 'the boy we raised'

Published: 2007-03-01

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) -- Helen Wester, the mother of Bishop John C. Wester, sees her son's appointment to head the Salt Lake City Diocese as a continuing of his vocation. She is a bit sad that he will be farther away from her than he has ever been before but "acceptance," at least of God's will, is a vital element of life, she said. Bishop Wester, 56, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco since 1998, was named bishop of the Utah diocese Jan. 8. He will be installed March 14 in ceremonies at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. "That's the biggest thing in life -- acceptance," Helen Wester told Catholic San Francisco, the archdiocesan newspaper, in the dining room of the Daly City home where she and her late husband, Charles, raised Bishop Wester and his siblings, Nancy, Barry and Kathy. "My own mother said that we need to accept things and leave them in God's hands. The eight years of John's being a bishop have been very fulfilling for me," she said. "Just watching him grow in his vocation has been such a gift."

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