By Elise Harris
Rome, Italy, Mar 12, 2015 / 05:25 am
On Thursday the Vatican announced that Bishop Thomas Anthony Daly has been tapped to lead Spokane's Catholic population, while Fr. John Stowe O.F.M., Conv. will take the reins in Lexington.
Bishop Daly was born in San Francisco, Cali., in 1960 and until now has served as auxiliary bishop for the diocese of San Jose.
He received a bachelor's degree from the University of San Francisco in 1982, and completed his ecclesiastical studies at the St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park. The bishop later went on to receive his masters in Pedagogy from Boston College, in Massachusetts in 1996.
May 9, 1987, marked the day of his ordination to the priesthood, after which he served as assistant priest for Our Lady of Loreto parish in Novato until 1992.
After leaving Our Lady or Loreto Bishop Daly served as a teacher and chaplain for Marin Catholic High School in Kentfield, where he served until 2003.
He simultaneously served as Parochial Vicar for both St. Cecilia parish in Lagunitas and St. Mary parish in Nicaso from 1995-1999. The future bishop also served as a part-time chaplain for the San Francisco Police Department until 2003.
Bishop Daly also served as chaplain of the St. Vincent School for Boys and associate director of Catholic Charities CYO until 2002.
The same year he was named as director of priestly vocations for the diocese, and in 2003 was appointed as a Consultant and Member of the Archdiocesan Council of Priests.
The latter is a position he held until his nomination as auxiliary bishop of the San Jose diocese in 2011. His ordination to the episcopate took place that May.
As an auxiliary, Daly served as Vicar for Clergy and was a member of the board of directors for St. Patrick Seminary in Menlo Park, where he also served as rector from 2013-2014.
Since 2014 he has also held the role of parish priest for St. Nicholas parish in Lost Altos, after serving as rector for St. Patrick's seminary.
Fr. John Stowe O.F.M. Conv., who will be the third bishop of Lexington, was born in 1966 in Amherst, Ohio. After finishing high school, he went on to get his bachelor's degree in both history and philosophy from St. Louis University.
After receiving a Masters in Divinity and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology with an emphasis in Church History from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, Cali., the bishop-elect made his solemn vows with the Order of Friars Minor Conventual in 1992, and was ordained a priest for them in 1995.
In 2002 he was invited to serve the diocese of El Paso, in Texas, as Moderator for the Curia and Vicar General. He later also served as chancellor for the diocese.
He served as Provincial Vicar of the Conventual Franciscan's province of Our Lady of Consolation, and from 2010 until now has served as rector of the Basilica and National Shrine of Our Lady of Consolation in Carey, Ohio.
The new bishop-elect also speaks Spanish, in addition to his native English.
