This is a press release from the U.S. bishops' conference this morning:
Pope names seminary rector bishop of Fort Worth, Texas
November 19, 2013
WASHINGTON—Pope Francis has named Msgr. Michael Olson, 47, a priest of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Texas and rector of Holy Trinity Seminary at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, as bishop of Fort Worth.
The appointment was publicized in Washington, November 19, by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, apostolic nuncio to the United States.
He succeeds Bishop Kevin Vann, who was named bishop of Orange, California, September 21, 2012.
Michael Olson was born June 29, 1966, in Park Ridge, Illinois. He attended Theological College in Washington and holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from The Catholic University of America. He attended St. Mary’s Seminary in Houston, Texas, where he received a master of arts in theological studies and a master of divinity in theology from the University of St. Thomas, Houston. He also holds a doctorate in moral theology from the Academia Alfonsiana, in Rome.
Bishop-elect Olson was ordained for the Fort Worth Diocese on June 3, 1994. He was named a chaplain of his holiness with the title monsignor in 2010.
Assignments after ordination included 1994-1997, parochial vicar, St. Michael’s Church, Bedford, Texas; 1997-2001, pursuit of doctoral studies at St. Louis University’s Center for Health Care Ethics in the Catholic Tradition; 2001-2006, formation director, St. Mary’s Seminary, Houston; 2006-2008, vicar general, Diocese of Fort Worth and pastor, St. Peter the Apostle Church, Fort Worth; and 2008-present, rector, Holy Trinity Seminary.
The Fort Worth diocese includes 23,950 square miles across 28 counties in Texas. It has a population of 3,356,669 people, with 680,000, or 20 percent of them, Catholic.
