Auxiliary Bishop Paul Bradley did such a good job overseeing the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh for 15 months between bishops that he was widely expected to receive a diocese of his own. Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI named him bishop of Kalamazoo, Mich.

Bishop Bradley, 63, said he was "humbled and honored."

Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh once said he had expected Bishop Bradley to become bishop here in 2007. It is "bittersweet" to see him move on, he said.

"To know that he will no longer be with me where I can benefit daily from his wisdom, strength, friendship and love for Jesus is the bitter part of this moment," he said.

This will leave Pittsburgh with no active auxiliary bishop.

He will be installed June 5 in the Diocese of Kalamazoo.

"He's a very humble man and very compassionate," said Mercy Sister Mariella Bradley, his sister, who is principal of St. Alphonsus School in Pine.

"He is delighted with the opportunity, but he is shocked, actually, that he has gone this one step further and is now bishop of a diocese."

Few others were shocked.

"He is a proven bishop and a proven pastor," said the Rev. Louis Vallone, pastor of St. John of God, McKees Rocks, and St. Catherine of Siena, Crescent.

"It's a very, heartening thing for the church in the United States to have a man of his wide range of abilities and experience" as head of a diocese.

He is inherently likable, said Father Vallone, who was once in a fantasy football league with Bishop Bradley.

"He's an archetypical Pittsburgher, a guy from a steel town, rooted in the neighborhood, rooted in the church."

He was born in Glassport, one of eight children, two of whom became nuns.

Ordained in 1971, he served parishes in Ross, Butler and Lawrenceville. In 1983, he became director of the diocesan Office for Family Life, and was promoted to oversee all social welfare concerns. Simultaneously, he earned a master's degree in social work from the University of Pittsburgh and was co-pastor of Madonna de Castello in Swissvale with a priest who is now Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston.

In 1994, he was appointed pastor of St. Sebastian in Ross. In 2001, he became rector of St. Paul Cathedral. In 2003, he returned to diocesan administration as general secretary and vicar general. He was ordained a bishop in 2005. In 2006, other priests elected him administrator after Bishop Donald Wuerl became archbishop of Washington, D.C.

During 15 months in that post he earned accolades. Instead of dictating the agenda for deanery meetings, he asked the priests what they wanted to discuss. He reorganized the administration to better equip laity for ministry. He authorized a $1.25 million payment that was shared by 32 people who had accused priests of molesting them, but whose claims were too old for courts to act on.

He will be the sixth Pittsburgher in the current crop of diocesan bishops, said Rocco Palmo of Philadelphia, whose blog Whispers In the Loggia tracks the hierarchy. He was probably chosen for his pastoral skills, Mr. Palmo said.

"There's something in the culture of Pittsburgh, an earthy, accessible, family spirit, that is reflected in its priests," he said.

Bishops from Pittsburgh, "by and large, don't take themselves too seriously. They see themselves as simple priests who work with the people. That is what the pope is looking for in order to restore the credibility of the church's top rank."