Daniel DiNardo

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 Elementary 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) at 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 Patristics 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 Saints John and Paul Church in Franklin Park in 1994.

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.

He once commented, "There is a certain sense of the church in Texas...It is more laid-back, informal, which I think is good."

He was created Cardinal-Priest of S. Eusebio in the consistory of November 24, 2007. In 2008 he was awarded Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.

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 support for legal abortion.

Outside of the Archdiocese, Cardinal DiNardo serves on the Board of the National Catholic Partnership for Persons with Disabilities, a position to which he brings a certain empathy, contending as he does with significant hearing loss in both ears. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Catholic University of America, is an advisor to the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, is a member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People and is part of the Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. He is the current chairman of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities. He is the Grand Prior of the South West Lieutenancy of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, a Papal order of Knighthood, in which he holds the rank of Knight Grand Cross.

He was one of the cardinal electors who participated in the 2013 papal conclave that selected Pope Francis.

On March 8, 2014, he was named by Pope Francis to serve as a member of the new Council for Economic Affairs, which oversees the activities of the new Secretariat for the Economy, the financial regulatory agency of the Roman Curia.

On November 14, 2014, at the fall meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Cardinal DiNardo was elected as a delegate to the 2015 Synod of Bishops on the Family, pending Vatican approval.

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.