O'Brien to Baltimore

The Holy Father has accepted the retirement of William Henry Cardinal Keeler as Archbishop of Baltimore.

The Holy Father has named as the new Archbishop of Baltimore Archbishop Edwin Frederick O’Brien, who has been up to now Archbishop for the Military Services of the United States.

Archbishop O’Brien was born in 1939 in the Bronx, New York. He attended Catholic schools and studied philosophy and theology at Archdiocesan seminary St. Joseph at Dunwoodie in Yonkers.

He was ordained a priest by Francis Cardinal Spellman on May 29, 1965 for the Archdiocese of New York. After ordination, he worked as Assistant Pastor at Most Holy Trinity Parish and civilian chaplain at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (1965-1970).

He then served as military chaplain with the rank of Captain in the United States Army, serving both in Vietnam and stateside (1970-1973).

He was then sent to the Casa Santa Maria of the Pontifical North American College in Rome (1973-1976) where he earned a doctorate in Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum). The title of his thesis was “The Origin and Development of Moral Principles in the Theology of Paul Ramsey”. Returning to the United States, he was assigned as Assistant Pastor of Saint Patrick's Cathedral and Vice-Chancellor of the Archdiocese of New York (1976-1981).

In 1981 he was named Archdiocesan Director of Social Communications and in 1983 Personal Secretary to the Cardinal Archbishop of New York. At the same time he served as Chaplain for the Catholic doctors of the Archdiocese. He was named Rector of his alma mater, the Major Seminary at Dunwoodie in 1985 and then Rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome in 1990. He returned to serve again as Rector at Dunwoodie from 1994 to 1997.

He was named Auxiliary Bishop of New York February 6, 1996 and ordained March 25. He was named Military Ordinary (Archbishop for the Military Services of the United States April 8, 1997. From 2005 to 2006 he was coordinator of the Apostolic Visitation of seminaries and houses of formation in the United States. He is a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars and of the Canon Law Society of America.

In the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop O’Brien has served in the following positions: Consultor on the International Policy Committee, President of the Committee for the Pontifical North American College in Rome, Member of the Committee for Priestly Formation and Member of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities.