Robert F. Vasa

Robert Francis Vasa (born May 7, 1951) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. On Monday, January 24, 2011, Bishop Vasa, 59, was named the Coadjutor Bishop (an Auxiliary Bishop with the right of succession), to Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa in California, by Pope Benedict XVI. Until then, he had been the fifth Bishop of Baker, in Oregon, which with his new appointment became a vacant see (sede vacante).
On 30 June 2011, Bishop Daniel F. Walsh's resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI, and so Bishop Vasa officially succeeded him as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santa Rosa in California immediately afterwards.

Robert F. Vasa was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Joe and Leona Vasa. From 1972 to 1976, he studied at Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas, Texas, from where he obtained a Master of Divinity degree. He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin on May 22, 1976. He then served as a curate at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ and a teacher at Pius X High School in Lincoln until 1977, when he became an advocate on the Diocesan Marriage Tribunal. In 1979 he was sent to further his studies at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, earning a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1981.

Following his return to Nebraska, Vasa was named assistant chancellor of the Diocese of Lincoln and afterwards Father Prior of Columbian Squires. He became judicial vicar of the Diocesan Tribunal and pastor of St. James Church at Cortland in 1985. He directed the Remodeling and Fund Drive for St. Stephen Church in Exter. In addition to his duties as judicial vicar, he was appointed pastor of St. Peter Church at Lincoln in 1990. He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1995. In 1996 he was named vicar general of the diocese and Moderator of the Curia. He became chairman of the Diocesan Building Commission in 1996, and served as pastor of St. Michael Church in Cheney from 1997 to 1999.

On November 19, 1999, Vasa was named the fifth Bishop of Baker, Oregon, by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on January 26, 2000 from Archbishop John George Vlazny, with Bishops Thomas Joseph Connolly and Fabian Bruskewitz serving as co-consecrators. In 2006 he implied that people who support abortion are guilty of heresy. In 2009 he described President Barack Obama's health care legislation as "fatally flawed."

In February 2010, according to a December 21, 2010 Catholic News Service online article about the status of another formerly Catholic hospital, Bishop Vasa had stated that St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, Oregon, located within the Baker Diocese, "had "gradually moved away" from the church's ethical directives and can no longer be called Catholic. As a result of that decision, Mass is no longer celebrated in the hospital's chapel and all items considered Catholic were removed from the hospital and returned to the church. The hospital retained the St. Charles name and a cross remains atop the building."