California bishop John Steinbock dies

LOS ANGELES - John Steinbock, the Roman Catholic bishop of Fresno, Calif., who presided over a period of tremendous growth in his diocese and was known as a strong administrator, a down-to-earth cleric and a hole-in-one golfer, died Sunday of lung cancer. He was 73.

A former parish priest in Los Angeles, Steinbock had led the Diocese of Fresno since 1991 and was credited with turning around its finances and welcoming the immigrants who accounted for an increasingly large proportion of its flock. Under his leadership, the diocese, encompassing most of the San Joaquin Valley, grew from about 350,000 worshipers to more than 1 million, according to diocesan officials.

He was known as a humble man of deep faith, possessed of more candor than is perhaps typical for a Catholic prelate.

"He wasn't the aristocrat bishop," said Gary Bethke, chief financial officer for the diocese. "He was a common, regular guy who could tell jokes and make people feel comfortable." He also was a serious golfer, and among his proudest accomplishments were two holes in one.

Like many Catholic bishops, he faced strong criticism over his handling of cases of sexual abuse by priests, although some praised him for taking a relatively forthright approach.

Steinbock also stirred controversy in 2008 when he dismissed a priest who spoke out against Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California.

Born in Los Angeles on July 16, 1937, Steinbock was the youngest of three boys, all of whom became priests.

After ordination in 1963, he was assigned to Resurrection Church in Los Angeles and later to St. Vibiana Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles, where he ministered to the destitute on skid row. In those postings he encountered poverty, gangs and drugs; he also learned Spanish and developed close bonds with parishioners.

He later described those years in a slim book, "Ministry of Presence: Vignettes of Skid Row and East L.A. Ministry," in which he wrote of praying alongside a woman who had just lost 14 children and grandchildren in an apartment fire, and about panhandlers, gang members and cops.

"Where are you from, Mars?" he recalls a young tough saying when Steinbock tried to break up a knife fight by suggesting that two rival gangs play baseball instead.

He was consecrated as a bishop in 1984, assigned as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of Orange. In 1987, he was named bishop of Santa Rosa, and four years later, was assigned to Fresno.