Spokane Bishop Gretchen Rehberg had waited a long time for this moment. On March 14, she sent a message to her diocese in eastern Washington and northern Idaho saying the wait was over: She had received the call and was at the University of Washington Hospital in Seattle awaiting a double lung transplant.
Rehberg, 61, has suffered for years from pulmonary fibrosis, a condition possibly tied to her time in 2001 as a seminarian in New York near Ground Zero in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In recent years, as her condition worsened, her doctors suggested she pursue a transplant surgery, for which she has been on the waitlist since early 2023. To read more, click here
