Pope names new Bishop of Springfield

 Staff Report

A new bishop has been appointed for Springfield, where Bishop McManus has been serving as apostolic administrator while remaining Bishop of Worcester.
Pope Francis appointed Father William Draper Byrne, a College of the Holy Cross graduate and a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, as the 10th Bishop of Springfield.
The announcement was made Wednesday in Washington, D.C., by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, U.S. papal nuncio. Bishop-elect Byrne was introduced that morning at a press conference at the Bishop John Marshall Center and preached at Mass at St. Michael Cathedral in Springfield. Both events were livestreamed via a link at www.diospringfield.org.
Bishop-elect Byrne assumes the position left vacant when Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski was named as the Archbishop of St. Louis on June 10 and was installed on Aug. 25. Since then, Bishop McManus has been apostolic administrator.
That assignment will end on Dec. 14 when Bishop-elect Byrne is ordained and installed as Bishop of Springfield at St. Michael Cathedral. He will shepherd a diocese of 79 parishes and seven missions located in Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties, with a Catholic population of 164,799.
“I extend my prayers and best wishes to Bishop-elect William Byrne upon his appointment by the Holy Father to the Diocese of Springfield,” Bishop McManus said. “I am confident that he will bring the same pastoral zeal to this wonderful diocese that he has demonstrated for the faithful in his assignments in the Archdiocese of Washington.”
Bishop-elect 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-elect attended Mater Dei School in Bethesda, Maryland, went on to Georgetown Preparatory School in Rockville, Maryland, and received a bachelor’s degree in English from 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, and received his bachelor’s in Sacred Theology in 1992 and licentiate in Sacred Theology in 1994, both from Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). He was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington on June 25, 1994 by Cardinal James A. Hickey.
After ordination, Father Byrne was named parochial vicar of the Church of the Little Flower in Bethesda, Maryland, 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. In 2007 he was named pastor of St. Peter Parish in Washington, D.C., where he served until 2015. From 2009 until 2015, while serving as pastor of St. Peter, Father Byrne 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, Maryland, where he currently serves.
Bishop-elect 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, Seattle and Newark, New Jersey, as well as in the dioceses of Providence, Rhode Island, and Bridgeport, Connecticut.  
In 2007, he gave the homily to 20,000 Catholic youth and their leaders gathered at the Verizon Center for the annual Mass and Rally for Life, which each year precedes the Annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
In 2016, Pope Francis named him a “Missionary of Mercy” for the Jubilee Year of Mercy.
Bishop-elect Byrne is a popular columnist and YouTube personality, with his series “Five Things” highlighting five life hacks, prayer starters, or spiritual meditations to help people to grow closer to God and appreciate the small – but vital – things in life. The series was so popular that it has been developed into a book, “Five Things with Fr. Bill,” which was scheduled to be released yesterday by Loyola Press.