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George Hugh Niederauer (born June 14, 1936) is an American bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He currently serves as the Archbishop of San Francisco. By virtue of his office as ordinary of the San Francisco archdiocese, Niederauer is also metropolitan archbishop of the ecclesiastical province of San Francisco, which includes the suffragan dioceses of Honolulu, Las Vegas, Oakland, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Santa Rosa, and Stockton. Niederauer previously served as Bishop of Salt Lake City from 1994 to 2005.

Episcopal coat of arms of Archbishop Niederauer

Styles of George Hugh Niederauer

Reference style The Most Reverend Spoken style Your Excellency Religious style Monsignor Posthumous style not applicable

George Niederauer was born in Los Angeles, California, the only child of George and Elaine Niederauer. He attended St. Anthony High School as a classmate of William Cardinal Levada. After graduating in 1954, he attended Stanford University. During his freshman year Niederauer changed course and decided to enter St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, from where in 1959 he earned a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. He further completed his studies with a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a Master of Arts degree in English Literature from Loyola University, Los Angeles in 1962. Niederauer also earned a Ph.D. in English Literature at USC.

Niederauer was ordained to the priesthood on April 30, 1962. He was raised to the rank of Honorary Prelate of His Holiness in 1984, and was appointed the eighth Bishop of Salt Lake City by Pope John Paul II on November 3, 1994. Niederauer received his episcopal consecration on January 25, 1995 from Roger Cardinal Mahony, with Archbishop William Levada and Bishop Tod David Brown serving as co-consecrators.

On December 15, 2005, Pope Benedict XVI named him to succeed William Levada as the eighth Metropolitan Archbishop of San Francisco, following Levada's appointment to Pope Benedict's former post of Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in the Roman Curia.

On film, Niederauer "liked" Syriana and thought Munich "too long".[1]. The archbishop had no qualms affirming that he had seen Brokeback Mountain, making him the first senior American cleric to state publicly that he has viewed the film. When asked for his reaction he said that "I thought it was very powerful, and I probably had a different take on it than a lot of people did.... It was a story not only about the relationship between the two principal characters, but very much a cluster of relationships... And I think in all of that one of the lessons is the destructiveness of not being honest with yourself, and not being honest with other people - and not being faithful, trying to live a double life, and what that does to each of the lives you try to live".

• "People who see as the sex abuse scandal as having as the cause the sexual orientation of the priests - I felt they were mistaken" [2].

• "Our belief is that we have to hold up the standard of abstinence, and we do that in all of our teaching about sexuality by saying that sexual activity outside of marriage is wrong. Now that's a very high bar to set and I understand that. And I don't regret that - I subscribe to it and I teach it. I understand why people find it difficult and disagree with it. I understand why they do. I don't agree with them.... What I would say is that people who disagree with us can disagree without being disagreeable."

• Catholic-Hierarchy.Org fact sheet
• Salt Lake Diocese press release of Niederauer's appointment as archbishop

• Official page at the San Francisco Archdiocese website
• Webcasts of Masses with Archbishop George Niederauer