Bishop John F. Kinney announced over the weekend he intends to retire from his position as the Catholic spiritual leader of the Diocese of St. Cloud.

The 75-year-old Kinney's retirement is not surprising because bishops his age are "required by church law to submit their resignation to the pope," the St. Cloud Times reports. It could take up to eight months to replace him.

Kinney, who was ordained an auxiliary bishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1977, also served as bishop of Bismarck, N.D., from 1982 to 1995 before his appointment to St. Cloud, the newspaper reports. The St. Cloud diocese includes 132 parishes with a Catholic population of 140,000.