Daniel Edward Thomas
Daniel Edward Thomas was born June 11, 1959, in the Manayunk section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He earned degrees from Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary and was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia on May 18, 1985, by Cardinal John Krol. Sent to Rome in 1987, he earned a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University and spent roughly fifteen years as an official of the Congregation for Bishops in the Roman Curia while serving as a spiritual director at the Pontifical North American College.
On June 8, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia and titular bishop of Bardstown; he was consecrated July 26, 2006. Pope Francis named him the eighth Bishop of Toledo on August 26, 2014, and he was installed October 22, 2014. He also served as apostolic administrator of the neighboring Diocese of Cleveland from December 2016 to September 2017. As of mid-2026 he remains the sitting Bishop of Toledo (age 67), with no coadjutor or announced transition.
Thomas is widely regarded as doctrinally orthodox and is one of the most prominent pro-life voices in the American hierarchy: he chairs the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities and issued the conference's official statement marking the fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision in June 2026. On the liturgy, he is counted among the more accommodating bishops after Traditionis Custodes, having granted a canonical dispensation to keep the Traditional Latin Mass in a parish church rather than exiling it.
Bishop Thomas has one of the more favorable Traditionis Custodes records among American bishops, and it rests on a concrete deed. Within days of the July 16, 2021 motu proprio he issued a formal statement invoking Canon 87 and granting a dispensation from Article 3 section 2, the provision barring the traditional Mass from being celebrated in parish churches. That dispensation kept the 1962 Missal at the parish church of Saint Joseph Parish on Locust Street in Toledo rather than pushing it to a chapel or out of the diocese. As of 2024-2025 the traditional Mass continues there with a full Sunday schedule, including a Low Mass and a High Mass, plus weekday and First Saturday offerings.
His tone toward the attached faithful was pastoral and non-hostile. He noted the diocese had 'gratefully not suffered discord and division' over the older form and affirmed that the faithful at Saint Joseph do not deny the validity of the reformed liturgy, using that finding as the canonical basis to accommodate rather than to restrict. He explicitly framed implementation in terms of care, patience, justice, and charity. There is no evidence he suppressed the Mass, closed the site, or moved against the community.
The record carries light caveats that keep it short of maximalist: he mandated the readings in the vernacular at the traditional Mass, required other priests to seek his personal permission, and grounded his accommodation on the faithful's acceptance of the Council's reform. There is no known FSSP or ICKSP apostolate inside the diocese; the traditional Mass is diocesan-priest-provided at Saint Joseph. Nor is there public evidence of him issuing ad orientem, altar-rail, or Communion-on-the-tongue directives. On the whole, however, the deeds -- keeping the TLM in a parish church by dispensation, a non-combative posture, and a solidly orthodox, vigorously pro-life public profile -- place him on the friendly side of the ledger.