James Steven Rausch was the second Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix

Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix

-History:The Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. It was established on December 2, 1969 when it was split off of the Diocese of Tucson...

, Arizona

Arizona

Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

.

Born in Albany, Minnesota

Albany, Minnesota

As of the census of 2000, there were 1,796 people, 708 households, and 436 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,287.6 people per square mile . There were 732 housing units at an average density of 524.8 per square mile...

, Rausch was ordained a priest for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud

Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud is a Roman Catholic diocese in Minnesota. It was founded on September 22, 1889, out of territory that had been evangelized by the missionary priest Father Francis Xavier Pierz...

, Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

. On March 5, 1973, Pope Paul VI

Pope Paul VI

Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

 appointed Rausch auxiliary bishop

Auxiliary bishop

An auxiliary bishop, in the Roman Catholic Church, is an additional bishop assigned to a diocese because the diocesan bishop is unable to perform his functions, the diocese is so extensive that it requires more than one bishop to administer, or the diocese is attached to a royal or imperial office...

of the St. Cloud Diocese and he was ordained bishop on April 16, 1973. On June 17, 1977, Rausch was appointed bishop of the Phoenix Diocese serving until his death.