Daniel F. Walsh
Daniel Francis Walsh is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the bishop of Bishop of Reno-Las Vegas before becoming the first Bishop of Las Vegas and the fifth Bishop of Santa Rosa in California.Biography
Walsh was born in San Francisco, California, and was ordained to the priesthood on March 30, 1963, in the Mission Dolores Basilica. He then served as associate pastor of in Redwood City until 1964, whence he began a year's study at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
From 1966 to 1970, he taught at Junípero Serra High School in San Mateo. Walsh served as assistant chancellor for the Archdiocese of San Francisco from 1970 to 1976, and then as private secretary to Archbishop Joseph McGucken until 1978. He became chancellor of the archdiocese in 1978, and its vicar general in 1981.
On July 30, 1981, Walsh was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of San Francisco and Titular Bishop of Tigias by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following September 24 from Archbishop John Quinn, with Bishops Michael Kenny and Joseph Ferrario serving as co-consecrators, in St. Mary's Cathedral. Walsh was later named Bishop of Reno-Las Vegas, Nevada, on June 9, 1987, and became Bishop of Las Vegas when the diocese was separated on March 21, 1995.
He returned to California upon his nomination by John Paul II as the fifth bishop of Santa Rosa on April 11, 2000, and was formally installed on May 22 of that same year.
In August 2006, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office recommended that criminal charges be filed against Bishop Daniel Walsh for not reporting multiple child molestations by Fr. Francisco Ochoa, who had confessed his actions to the Bishop earlier. During the period in which Bishop Walsh was required by law to report the crimes and did not, Ochoa fled to Mexico and avoided prosecution. A plea agreement was reached with the District Attorney's Office under which Bishop Walsh agreed to undergo counseling in lieu of prosecution. Had the plea agreement not been reached, it would have been the first civil prosecution of an American bishop in concealing sex crimes. .
It was announced on January 24, 2011, that Bishop Robert F. Vasa, formerly the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baker, Oregon, would become the Coadjutor Bishop to Bishop Walsh, and as such would succeed him. The succession formally occurred on 30 June 2011, when Bishop Walsh's official resignation was accepted by Pope Benedict XVI.
Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Walsh chaired the , and sits on the .
