Timothy Senior Named Bishop of Harrisburg Diocese
By Church News
Pope Francis has appointed Bishop Timothy Senior, an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, as the next bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Bishop Timothy Senior, who also serves as the chancellor of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Philadelphia, will assume his new role on June 21. A Mass of installation will be held at the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Harrisburg at 2 p.m. that day.
He will succeed Harrisburg Bishop Ronald W. Gainer, who offered his resignation when he turned 75 in August of last year, which is required by canon law.
“I am profoundly grateful to Pope Francis for his confidence and trust in appointing me to serve the faithful of the Diocese of Harrisburg as their next bishop,” Senior said in a statement. “Trusting in God’s will and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I pray that I may be a faithful, holy, and worthy shepherd for the people of central Pennsylvania in service of Jesus Christ and for the good of his Church.”
Senior will be the 12th bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg, which was founded in 1868 and serves more than 200,000 Catholics from 15 counties in central Pennsylvania.
The bishop is a Pennsylvania native who graduated in 1977 from Lansdale Catholic High School outside of Philadelphia. He was ordained to the priesthood in the archdiocese in 1985 and obtained a master’s of divinity and a master’s of arts in theology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, located outside of Philadelphia.
After earning those degrees, Senior served as an assistant pastor in Bucks County and taught religion at Archbishop Kennedy High School, which is located in the archdiocese. He then received a master’s in social work and business administration from Boston College in 1992 before returning to the archdiocese.