He had been living at Nazareth House in San Rafael, Calif., for several months following a diagnosis of interstitial lung disease.

The eighth arch-bishop of San Francisco, Archbishop Niederauer succeeded seminary classmate and boyhood friend Cardinal William J. Levada, who was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2005. Archbishop Niederauer served in San Francisco from 2006 to 2012.

He was ordained to the priesthood April 30, 1962, for the Los Angeles Archdiocese.

He earned a doctorate in English from the University of Southern California in 1966, and spent 27 years as English profes- sor, spiritual director, theology teacher and rector at St. John’s Seminary and at Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles before his 1994 appointment by St. John Paul II as bishop of Salt Lake City.

During his nearly five years of retirement, he regularly led retreats for bishops, priests, deacons, men and women religious and seminarians.

Archbishop Niederauer served as the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Communication, and as a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

A funeral Mass was celebrated May 12 at St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco.