ROCHESTER - Robert Barron can still remember the first conversation he had with Bishop John Quinn, his predecessor at the Diocese of Winona-Rochester.
Barron, who was appointed bishop of southern Minnesota's diocese last year, said the first thing Quinn said after congratulating him was, "You know, we're going to build a pastoral center in Rochester."
Catholic officials broke ground on that pastoral center last week, continuing the changes in the diocese's fortunes since emerging from bankruptcy. With a new bishop, a new home under construction in northwest Rochester and plans in place to reach more people, church officials are renewing their push to be more accessible to southern Minnesotans.
"It's a culmination of a long process, and it lifts up a lot of the priests," Barron said. "It's something really positive."
Barron, 63, is no stranger to the Midwest. He grew up in Chicago and served in Illinois for decades before he was named auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. He's more known for his online presence — he started the Catholic media company Word on Fire in 2000 and helped produce an award-winning documentary on Catholicism in 2011.
The conversation to move the southern Minnesota seat of the Catholic Church from Winona to Rochester started about seven years before Barron moved to Minnesota.
The diocese has existed in one form or another since the late 19th century, and as part of other dioceses going back to 1837. Since 1952, its home parish has been the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Winona. Yet church officials have debated shifting the diocese headquarters west, as most of the Catholics in the diocese live between Mankato and Rochester.
"To be closer, to be more present, to be more available to them is just a benefit to everyone," said Monica Herman, executive director of the Catholic Foundation of Southern Minnesota. Herman and other church officials worked on the move for years but shelved the proposal after the diocese declared bankruptcy in 2018 to address clergy sex abuse claims.