Most Rev. Thomas A. Daly

Bishop of Spokane

Chairman, United States Conference of Catholic BishopS Committee on Catholic Education

Most Rev. Thomas A Daly was born April 30, 1960, in San Francisco. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco in 1982; a master of divinity from St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, California, in 1987; and a master of education degree from Boston College in 1996. He was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of San Francisco in 1987. Bishop Daly was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John Quinn for the Archdiocese of San Francisco on May 9, 1987. He served as a curate at Our Lady of Loretto Parish in Novato, California, and later as a teacher and campus minister at Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, California. Later, he served as part-time chaplain to the San Francisco Police Department while concurrently posted as Associate Pastor at Saint Cecilia Parish in San Francisco. After these assignments, Bishop Daly became involved in the archdiocesan vocation’s office; serving concurrently as director of vocations and president of Marin Catholic High School.

On March 16, 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of San Jose. He was ordained on May 25, 2011. Pope Francis named him the seventh Bishop of Spokane on March 12, 2015. Bishop Daly was installed on May 20, 2015 in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes in Spokane. Since 2020, Bishop Daly has served as the Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Catholic Education, which oversees Catholic primary and secondary schools, Catholic colleges and universities, and campus ministries for students. He presently sits on the St. Patrick's Seminary Board of Trustees, where its aim is to prepare future priests as shepherds of the Catholic Church. Bishop Daly oversees a diocese in Spokane that includes four Catholic high schools and 13 parochial schools.