Charles Salatka

Charles Alexander Sałatka ( born February 26, 1918 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, † March 17, 2003 in Oklahoma City ) was a Roman Catholic Archbishop of Oklahoma City.

Life

Charles Sałatka grew up as one of five children of a Lithuanian immigrant family. After studying Catholic theology he received on 24 February 1945, the ordination.

On December 11, 1961, he was named by Pope John XXIII. auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of Grand Rapids and titular bishop of Cariana. He received his episcopal consecration of the Apostolic Delegate in the United States, Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, on 6 March of the following year. Co-consecrators were the Bishop of Grand Rapids, Allen James Babcock, and the Bishop of Marquette, Thomas Lawrence Noa. He was the first bishop of Lithuanian origin in the United States.

As an auxiliary bishop, he participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI. appointed him on January 5, 1968 Bishop of Marquette; the inauguration followed on 25 March of the same year.

On September 27, 1977, he was called by Pope Paul VI. appointed Archbishop of Oklahoma City and introduced in this office on December 15. Sałatka who had witnessed as a child of immigrants, the Great Depression, turned with a special commitment charitable initiatives and pastoral care to the Hispanic and Vietnamese immigrants in his archdiocese to. At the age of 68 years he began to learn Spanish to be able to celebrate Holy Mass for the immigrants in their native language. Sałatka brought spiritual renewal movement RENEW in his archdiocese and promoted the alignment of the first multicultural festival in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, which was attended by several thousand believers in 1992.

On November 24, 1992 Pope John Paul II took Salatkas resignation to the Office of the Archbishop of Oklahoma City. He spent his retirement in a senior center in Oklahoma City, where he died.