Green Bay, Jul 9, 2008 / 11:00 am (CNA).- On Wednesday Pope Benedict XVI appointed Most Rev. David L. Ricken as the new bishop of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The prelate will become the 12th Bishop of Green Bay on August 28, 2008.

Bishop Ricken will go to the Diocese of Green Bay after having served as the Bishop of Cheyenne, Wyoming. During his years of service there, Bishop Ricken oversaw the establishment of Wyoming Catholic College and the spiritual lives of the 49,000 Catholics in his diocese.

The newly appointed bishop was born in Dodge City, Kansas in 1952 and after Catholic grade school, entered St. Francis Seminary High School. He later completed his studies for the priesthood at St. Meinrad School of Theology in Indiana and the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. In 1980, Ricken was ordained a priest by Bishop Arthur Tafoya.

After serving in several diocesan positions, Bishop Ricken was nominated to be an official of the Congregation for the Clergy at the Vatican in 1996 and served there until December of 1999.

On Jan. 6, 2000, Ricken was ordained as a bishop for the Diocese of Cheyenne at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome by Pope John Paul II.

Bishop Ricken will become the 12^th bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay, succeeding the Most Rev. David A. Zubik, who was appointed the bishop of Pittsburgh on September 28, 2007. The ceremony for Bishop Ricken’s installation will take place on August 28 at a place and time that has yet to be announced.

Established in 1868, the Diocese of Green Bay is home to nearly 350,000 Catholics.