Daniel DiNardo

Daniel Nicholas DiNardo (born May 23, 1949) is an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the second and current Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, having previously served as Bishop of Sioux City from 1998 to 2004.
DiNardo was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2007. He is the first cardinal archbishop from a diocese in the Southern United States.
==Early life and education==
Daniel DiNardo was born in Steubenville, Ohio, to Nicholas and Jane (née Green) DiNardo. One of four children, he has an older brother, Thomas; a twin sister, Margaret; and a younger sister, Mary Anne. The family later moved to Castle Shannon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. As a child, DiNardo would pretend to celebrate Mass in vestments sewn by his mother and at an altar his father constructed.
He attended St. Anne Grade School from 1955 to 1963, and graduated from the Jesuit-run Bishop's Latin School in 1967. He then entered St. Paul Seminary, where he was a classmate of David Zubik (who later became Bishop of Pittsburgh) and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. In 1969, DiNardo was awarded the Basselin Scholarship for Philosophy at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., from where he later obtained a Master's degree in philosophy. He furthered his studies in Rome, earning a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University and studying patrology at the Augustinianum.
==Priesthood==
DiNardo was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Vincent Leonard on July 16, 1977. He then served as parochial vicar at St. Pius X Church in Brookline until 1980. In 1981, he was named Assistant Chancellor of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and part-time professor at St. Paul Seminary. While at St. Paul, he served as spiritual director to the seminarians.
From 1984 to 1990, DiNardo worked in Rome as a staff member of the Congregation for Bishops in the Roman Curia. During this time, he also served as the director of Villa Stritch (1986-1989), the house for American clergy working for the Holy See, and an adjunct professor at the Pontifical North American College.
Upon his return to the United States in 1991, he was named Assistant Secretary for Education for the Pittsburgh diocese and concurrently served as co-pastor with Paul J. Bradley of Madonna del Castello Church in Swissvale. He became the founding pastor of Ss. John and Paul Church in Franklin Park in 1994.
==Episcopal career==
===Bishop of Sioux City===
On August 19, 1997, DiNardo was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Sioux City, Iowa, by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following October 7 from Bishop Lawrence Soens, with Bishops Donald Wuerl and Raymond Burke serving as co-consecrators, in the Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. He adopted as his episcopal motto: Ave Crux Spes Unica, taken from the Latin hymn Vexilla Regis and meaning, "Hail, O Cross, Our Only Hope."
He succeeded Soens as the sixth Bishop of Sioux City upon the latter's retirement on November 28, 1998.
===Archbishop of Galveston-Houston===
DiNardo was later named Coadjutor Bishop of Galveston-Houston, Texas, on January 16, 2004. The diocese was elevated to the rank of a metropolitan archdiocese by John Paul II on the following December 29, and he thus became Coadjutor Archbishop. When Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Joseph Fiorenza, DiNardo succeeded him as the second Archbishop of Galveston-Houston on February 28, 2006. He received the pallium, a vestment worn by metropolitan bishops, from Benedict XVI on June 29 of that year.
As Archbishop, he is the spiritual leader of approximately 1.3 million Catholics; he is assisted by Auxiliary Bishop Joe S. Vasquez. He once commented, "There is a certain sense of the church in Texas...It is more laid-back, informal, which I think is good."
On October 17, 2007, the Holy See announced that DiNardo and 23 other clergymen would be elevated to the College of Cardinals by Benedict XVI. He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Eusebio in the consistory of November 24, 2007 at St. Peter's Basilica. He will be eligible to participate in any future papal conclave until he reaches the age of 80 on May 23, 2029.
On January 17, 2009, he was made a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture. In March 2009, he described the choice of President Barack Obama to be the commencement speaker for the University of Notre Dame's graduation ceremony as "very disappointing," given Obama's pro-choice views.
DiNardo has recently attempted to demolish the remaining Catholic Church on Bolivar Peninsula, Our Mother of Mercy, a church that survived Hurricane Ike with minimal damage. The parishioners have obtained a court order preventing the demolition, but not before the church was stripped by the archdiocese. The former priest of the parish had planned to celebrate mass for the Bolivar community, but Cardinal DiNardo has chosen to forbid him from doing so. This controversial position has led to unpopularity of DiNardo in the Bolivar/Galveston community.Houston Chronicle
DiNardo is currently a member of the Board of Trustees at CUA.
== Personal ==
DiNardo wears hearing aids because calcium deposits in his ears have impaired his hearing. Despite his hearing difficulties, he still prefers to sing or chant parts of the Mass.
== References ==
== External links ==
* Bio of Cardinal Dinardo
* Interview with the London Catholic Herald
Category:1949 births
Category:Living people
Category:American cardinals
Category:American Roman Catholic archbishops
Category:The Catholic University of America alumni
Category:The Catholic University of America
Category:Duquesne University alumni
Category:Religious leaders from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Category:People from Steubenville, Ohio
Category:Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Galveston-Houston
Category:Cardinals created by Pope Benedict XVI
de:Daniel DiNardo
fr:Daniel DiNardo
it:Daniel DiNardo
la:Daniel Nicolaus DiNardo
nl:Daniel DiNardo
no:Daniel Nicholas DiNardo
pl:Daniel DiNardo
ru:Динардо, Даниэль Николас
fi:Daniel DiNardo