Pope Francis Picks Daly to Lead Spokane Diocese

By John Stucke
The Spokesman-Review
March 13, 2015

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/mar/13/pope-francis-picks-daly-to-lead-spokane-diocese/

Jesse Tinsley

The auxiliary bishop in San Jose, California, has been named by Pope Francis as the seventh bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane.

Thomas Daly, 54, succeeds Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich, who left Spokane last fall to lead the nation’s third largest diocese.

Daly comes to Spokane from San Jose, where he serves as auxiliary bishop in the nation’s 10th largest diocese. He was born in San Francisco and was ordained as a priest in 1987. He will spend the next two months completing his obligations in San Jose. His installation in Spokane is set for May 20 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes.

During a Thursday news conference Daly acknowledged the challenges of leading a church during an age of an increasingly secular society.

“I don’t anticipate it being easy,” he said in calling for a “reality grounded in faith.”

Daly was born April 30, 1960, into a strong Catholic family. His father worked as an executive for a furniture company and his mother raised the family of seven children.

He spent many years involved in Catholic education, including 19 years as a teacher and campus minister, and then president of Marin Catholic High School.

In 2011 he was appointed auxiliary bishop in San Jose.

He arrives in Spokane following a tumultuous period that included a controversial bankruptcy. The aftershocks of that legal strategy – first undertaken in the fall of 2004 – continue to be felt.

Cupich helped mend the finances of the church during his tenure, reaching compromise with some of the church’s staunchest critics, including many victims of clergy sex abuse.

The worst of the crisis has passed and Daly should be free to help Eastern Washington Catholics embrace his motto: “Into Your Hands.”

“It’s a motto of surrender, trust and a call to humility,” he said.

He faces possible detractors from the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

They called on Daly to reach out to people to identify wrongdoing, including child molestation, by priests.

“We’re worried about Spokane’s new bishop and how he’ll deal with clergy sex abuse cases,” David Clohessy, the director of St. Louis-based SNAP, said in a news release.

Daly noted that San Jose and neighboring San Francisco also faced challenging abuse cases.

His call to become bishop of Spokane came last month.

Though he received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of San Francisco in 1982, he noted that he is excited to be swept up in the fan fever of Gonzaga University basketball.

He attended St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, California, where he completed a master’s degree in divinity. He also received a master’s degree in education from Boston College in 1996.

Daly was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1987. He has served as a parochial vicar and pastor and has been engaged as a part-time police chaplain and archdiocesan vocations director.