Bishop William Byrne

Bishop-elect William D. Byrne was born on 26 September 1964 in Washington, D.C., in the archdiocese of the same name. In 1986 he obtained a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas in Rome, as a student of the Pontifical North American College (1989-1994). Since priestly ordination he has held the following offices: parish vicar of the Shrine of the Little Flower parish in Bethesda (1994-1995) and of the Shrine of Saint Jude parish in Rockville (1995-1999); chaplain of the University of Maryland Catholic Student Centre in College Park (1999-2007); parish priest of the Saint Peter parish in Washington (2007-2015) and of the Our Lady of Mercy parish in Potomac (from 2015 to the present); secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns (2009-2015), and member of the Formation Board (since 2002), the Priest Personnel Assignment Board (2003-2006), the presbyteral council (2006-2009) and the Board of Directors of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary (2010-2015). Bishop William D. Byrne was born Sept. 26, 1964. A native of Washington, D.C., he is the youngest of eight children of Mary (Largent) Byrne and the late Dr. William Byrne, a thoracic and cardiovascular surgeon who passed away in 2011. As a youth, the bishop attended Mater Dei School in Bethesda, Maryland and went on to Georgetown Preparatory School in Rockville, Maryland. He completed his undergraduate studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. He then taught for three years at Mater Dei before being accepted as a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. He studied at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, completing his licentiate in sacred theology from Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) and was ordained on June 25, 1994 by Cardinal James A. Hickey. After ordination, then Father Byrne was assigned to the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland as parochial vicar where he served until 1995. From there he was assigned as parochial vicar at the Shrine of Saint Jude in Rockville. From 1999 until 2007, he served as the chaplain for the University of Maryland’s Catholic Student Center in College Park. He was named pastor of St. Peter Parish in Washington, D.C., in 2007 where he served until 2015. From 2009 until 2015, while serving as pastor of St. Peter’s, he was also secretary for pastoral ministry and social concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington. In 2015, he was named pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish in Potomac. Bishop Byrne’s ministry also includes service on the Archdiocese of Washington’s vocations team (1998), formation board (2002-present), priest council (2003-2006), priest personnel board (2006-2009), and archdiocesan administrative board (2009-2015). He also served on the board of directors of St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home, Catholic Youth Organization, and Redemptoris Mater Seminary, as well as the advisory board of the Lay Leadership Institute. In addition to his parish and diocesan work, for nine years he taught homiletics to the seminarians of the Pontifical North American College. He has been invited to speak at numerous Priests Convocations, including in the Archdioceses of Washington, Newark, New Jersey and Seattle, as well as in the dioceses of Providence, R.I., and Bridgeport, Conn.