Alexander Salazar
Alejandro Salazar is a Costa Rican-American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2004 to 2018.Biography
Salazar was born in San José, Costa Rica, but moved with his family to the United States in 1953, settling in Los Angeles, California. He attended Daniel Murphy High School; East Los Angeles College; California State University, Los Angeles; and Immaculate Heart College, from where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Bi-Lingual Studies in 1978. From 1968 to 1979, he taught at St. Albert the Great School in Compton.
In 1977, Salazar entered St. John's Seminary in Camarillo. He was ordained to the priesthood by Timothy Cardinal Manning on June 16, 1984. He served as associate pastor at St. Gregory the Great, Whittier; Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pasadena; and the Cathedral of St. Vibiana. He was pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Church in Silverlake from 1995 to 2004. He also served as Dean of Deanery 14, and as a member the Council of Priests, College of Consultors, Clergy Pension Board, and Archdiocesan Personnel Board. In 2003, he was named Vice-Chancellor of the Archdiocese and Honorary Chaplain of His Holiness.
On September 7, 2004, Salazar was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles and Titular Bishop of Nesqually by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following November 4 from Roger Cardinal Mahony, with Bishops Gabino Zavala and Gustavo Garcia-Siller, M.Sp.S., serving as co-consecrators. He selected as his episcopal motto: "Do What Jesus Tells You".
In 2005, the Archdiocese learned that in 2002 civil authorities had investigated a claim that Salazar had been accused of sexual misconduct with a minor in the 1990s and decided not to prosecute him. According to Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith then "conducted an investigation and imposed certain precautionary measures on the ministry of Bishop Salazar".
Pope Francis accepted his resignation on December 19, 2018, after the Clergy Misconduct Oversight Board, an archdiocesan body, recommended he not be allowed to exercise his ministerial functions.
