ROCHESTER — The man named interim leader of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the wake of John Nienstedt’s resignation has met with Catholic priests in the state.

Archbishop Bernard Hebda joined several hundred priests in Rochester Wednesday. He celebrated Mass with the priests, but didn’t address the media as he walked to a downtown Rochester hotel.

In an interview Monday with the archdiocese’s newspaper, The Catholic Spirit, Hebda said he’ll split his time between the archdiocese and his current assignment in New Jersey, but the archdiocese is suffering so intends to give it the bulk of his energy.

Hebda said he wants to help area Catholics “get back to the point of being the joyful missionary disciples that Pope Francis has asked us to be.”