Daniel DiNardo

Daniel Nicholas DiNardo (born May 23, 1949) is an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Galveston-Houston from 2006 to 2025. He previously served as Coadjutor and later Bishop of Sioux City from 1997 to 2004.

On November 12, 2013, DiNardo was elected vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and on November 15, 2016, was elected its president.

DiNardo was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007. He is the first cardinal from a diocese in the Southern United States and the state of Texas.

Daniel DiNardo was born on May 23, 1949, 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. As a child, DiNardo would pretend to celebrate mass in vestments sewn by his mother and at an altar his father constructed.

DiNardo attended St. Anne Elementary School in Castle Shannon from 1955 to 1963, and graduated from the Jesuit Bishop's Latin School in 1967. He then entered St. Paul Seminary at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1969, DiNardo was accepted as a Basselin Scholar in philosophy at the Theological College at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy in 1971 and a Master of Philosophy degree in 1972.

DiNardo continued his studies in Rome, earning a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree at the Pontifical Gregorian University and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Augustinian Patristic Pontifical Institute."

DiNardo was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Pittsburgh by Bishop Leonard on July 16, 1977. After his ordination, the diocese assigned him as parochial vicar at St. Pius X Parish in Brookline, Pennsylvania. In 1981, Leonard named DiNardo as assistant chancellor of the diocese and part-time professor at St. Paul Seminary. While at St. Paul, he served as spiritual director to the seminarians.

In 1984, 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 to 1989), the resident for American clergy working for at the Vatican, and as an adjunct professor at the Pontifical North American College.