WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope John Paul II has named Msgr. Kevin C. Rhoades, rector of Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., as bishop of Harrisburg, succeeding the late Bishop Nicholas C. Dattilo.

The Holy Father also named new bishops for Columbus, Ohio, and Grand Island, Neb. The appointments were announced Oct. 14 in Washington by Archbishop Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

The pope accepted the retirement of Bishop James A. Griffin of Columbus and named Auxiliary Bishop Frederick F. Campbell of St. Paul-Minneapolis as his successor.

The retirement of Bishop Lawrence J. McNamara of Grand Island was accepted and Msgr. William J. Dendinger, a pastor in Omaha, Neb., was named as his successor.

Bishop-designate Rhoades, who will be 47 in November, will be the second youngest bishop in the United States and the youngest bishop to head a diocese.

Born on Nov. 26, 1957, in Mahanoy City, Pa., he graduated from Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg. He studied for the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., and at the Gregorian University in Rome. He was ordained a priest in July 1983 by then-Auxiliary Bishop William H. Keeler of Harrisburg.

After ordination, Bishop-designate Rhoades was parochial vicar of St. Patrick Parish in York, Pa., 1983-85; assistant chancellor of the Harrisburg Diocese, 1988-90; and pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Harrisburg, 1990-95. While in parish ministries, he also worked with local Spanish-speaking apostolates.

In 1995, Bishop-designate Rhoades joined the faculty at Mount St. Mary's Seminary and two years later he became the seminary rector and vice president of what is now Mount St. Mary's University.

Mount St. Mary’s is one of three seminaries used by the Arlington Diocese to train its future priests.

During an Oct. 14 press conference in Harrisburg, Bishop-designate Rhoades said he was "happy to be coming home" and he looked forward to working with the men and women of the diocese.

Cardinal Keeler, who heads the Baltimore Archdiocese, said the bishop-designate brings many gifts to his new ministry, and described him as a dedicated priest who "knows and loves the diocese personally." He also said Bishop-designate Rhoades effectively dealt with challenges of a city parish and is equipped "culturally and linguistically to offer spiritual leadership to those coming from Latin America."

Bishop Campbell was born in 1943 in Elmira, N.Y. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1980 and was named an auxiliary of the archdiocese in 1999.

The bishop is no stranger to Ohio. He earned his master's and doctoral degrees in history at Ohio State University in Columbus, and prior to entering the seminary he was a history teacher at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio.

He studied at St. Paul Seminary at the University of St. Thomas, in St. Paul, and after his ordination he served as associate pastor and pastor at several parishes in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese before his episcopal appointment. Since 2002, he has been rector and vice president of the St. Paul Seminary and School of Divinity.

Bishop-designate Dendinger is a major general and former chaplain in the U.S. Air Force. As chief of chaplains, he was head of nearly 1,000 Air Force chaplains of different religious affiliations.

He was born on May 20, 1939, in Omaha and both of his parents died in a car accident when he was a child. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha in May 1965.