Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades, who was appointed Saturday as the next bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, was voted in Tuesday as chairman-elect of U.S. Catholic bishops’ Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth during the bishops’ Fall General Assembly in Baltimore, Md.

Rhoades was elected by a 145-93 margin over Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, Kan., the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) media relations office reported on the organization’s Web site, www.usccb.org. The bishops’ fall meeting began Monday and concludes today.

Rhoades, who succeeds retiring Bishop John M. D’Arcy as head of the Fort Wayne-South Bend diocese, will serve for a year as chairman-elect of his USCCB committee before beginning a three-year term as chairman, the news release said. Bishops also voted in chairmen-elect for committees on clergy, consecrated life and vocation; divine worship; domestic justice and human development; and migration.

Rhoades’ committee’s major responsibility involves guiding bishops in supporting and promoting the sacrament of marriage, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, USCCB media relations director, said via e-mail.

He will have to attend a couple of committee meetings a year, Walsh said. Election as committee chairman also makes him a member of the USCCB’s administrative committee, the highest-ranking body of U.S. bishops when a full general assembly is not in session, she said.