Almost a year since his becoming the first Latino bishop in the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, Bishop Cirilo Flores passed away on Saturday, September 6th.

Flores died of cancer at Nazareth House, in Mission Valley, the diocese announced that same afternoon.

During the year Flores was bishop, he created a strong bond with the Latino Catholic community of San Diego, according to Rodrigo Valdivia, chancellor of the Diocese of San Diego.

“The arrival of Bishop Flores filled the Latino community with joy and hope, and his sudden death is a great sadness,” Valdivia said.

The son of Mexican immigrants, Flores was born in Corona, California, on June 20, 1948, the third child of Cirilo and Armida Flores. His father was from the state of Sinaloa, in northern Mexico.

Flores practiced law in Riverside and Los Angeles counties for ten years before he entered St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo in 1986. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Orange in 1991.

As the first bishop of Mexican origin, Flores replaced retiring Bishop Robert Brom. Before Flores, beloved Bishop Gilbert Chavez had been coadjutor bishop in San Diego, but Flores was the first official bishop of Mexican descent.

His arrival in San Diego, which is home to a million Catholics, created a strong bond between the Church and Latino Catholics, Valdivia said.

“All of the Latino community felt supported by the Bishop and so close to him,” he said.

Flores, who was San Diego’s fifth bishop, suffered a stroke in April, and was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after. His funeral and mass are set for Tuesday, September 16th.

“We now wait for the naming of the next bishop, something we leave in God’s hands,” Valdivia said.

Monsignor Steven Callahan, long-tie vicar general for the diocese, has been named as temporary Diocese Administrator in charge of the diocese while the Vatican names another bishop, he added.

Callahan’s designation has already caused controversy.

In a press release this week, Joelle Casteix, Western Regional Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the organization is “dismayed to hear” about Callahan’s new position, calling him “a controversial priest.”

“We are sad that San Diego clerics chose an ‘administrator’ with a such a tarnished reputation of complicity in clergy sex abuse and cover up cases,” Casteix said in the statement.

SNAP argues that Callahan was involved in several sex abuse cover up cases in the past decade.

“The only way to ensure that the status quo of child sex crimes and cover-ups end is to stop promoting wrongdoers,” Casteix said. “The next diocesan administrator should have been a cleric with no history in the diocese. That way, Catholics could have been assured that the administrator’s loyalty is to safety and child protection, and not to powerful local men and women who commit or cover-up sex abuse.”

Valdivia didn’t comment on the controversy, only stating that “our focus at the moment is the loss of Bishop Flores and preparations for his funeral next week.”

When Flores became bishop last year, he said that during his time at the diocese he was going to put special emphasis on several issues, especially those having to do with charity, and evangelization, echoing Pope Francis.

“As we continue on our journey of faith as the Diocese of San Diego, may we never lose sight of our Lord’s call to care for the poor,” Flores said at the time. “The work of faith formation must continue to be a key effort throughout our diocese. Our efforts must be strengthened as we form the next generations of faithful Catholics even as we emphasize anew the need for adult faith education and formation.”

For more information on the life of Bishop Cirilo Flores, and to see his funeral’s schedule, please visit www.diocese-sdiego.org.