Thomas J. Olmsted

The Most Reverend Thomas J. Olmsted was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 2, 1973. He was installed as the fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix on December 20, 2003.

Prior to his arrival in Phoenix, he served as Bishop of Wichita, Kansas, after being ordained Coadjutor Bishop on April 20, 1999. Prior to serving in Wichita, he served as Rector / President of the Pontifical College Josephinum, a Catholic Seminary in Columbus. , Ohio.

Since 1974, Bishop Olmsted has been a member of the Jesus Caritas Priests Fraternity, and thus has been deeply influenced by the testimony and wisdom of Charles de Foucauld and by the prayers and motivation of many brother priests.

For 16 years, Bishop Olmsted lived in Rome, Italy, where he obtained a master's degree in theology, a doctorate in Canon Law, and spent more than nine years in the Secretariat of State of the Holy See. During his nine years of service to the Holy See, he resided at the Pontifical North American College and assisted seminarians with spiritual direction.

Having been raised on a family farm on the Kansas-Nebraska border, he attended a one-classroom elementary school near Oketo, Kansas, and a small rural high school in Summerfield, Kansas. His first contact with Catholic schools was when he entered St. Thomas Seminary College in Denver, Colorado, where he graduated in 1969 with a BA in philosophy.