David Bonnar
David Joseph Bonnar was born February 5, 1962, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Duquesne University (1984) and studied for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, taking a Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Pittsburgh on July 23, 1988, by Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
As a Pittsburgh priest he served as director of vocations and rector of Saint Paul Seminary, as pastor of St. Bernard Parish in Mt. Lebanon (2009-2020) and founding pastor of St. Aidan Parish in Wexford (2020). He was also chaplain to the Pittsburgh Steelers and, from 2014, editor of The Priest magazine.
Pope Francis appointed him the sixth Bishop of Youngstown, Ohio, on November 17, 2020; he was consecrated and installed at St. Columba Cathedral on January 12, 2021. He continues to lead the six-county Diocese of Youngstown as of mid-2026. His tenure has been dominated by a large restructuring of the diocese, with numerous parishes merged and church buildings closed through 2026 due to declining priest numbers and finances.
The concrete test of Traditionis Custodes in Youngstown was Queen of the Holy Rosary Parish in Vienna, the diocese's one dedicated Latin Mass community, staffed by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and offering the Traditional Latin Mass daily. When Pope Francis issued Traditionis Custodes on July 16, 2021, Bonnar's response, conveyed publicly within weeks by chancellor Msgr. John Zuraw, was that the parish would remain intact and continue the Tridentine Mass. No suppression, no capping, no relocation, and no restrictive TC decree has been issued in the diocese. As of 2026 the FSSP parish still offers daily TLM under pastor Rev. John Fongemie, FSSP.
That is a genuinely favorable deed: many bishops used Traditionis Custodes to shrink or end such communities, while Bonnar let a full, thriving daily-TLM parish stand untouched. Weighed honestly, though, the record is thin on Bonnar's own words. The reassurances came from his chancellor, not in his own voice, and Queen of the Holy Rosary is a pre-existing FSSP-run community with some structural protection. There is no public ad orientem, altar-rail, Communion, or sacraments policy attributable to Bonnar, and no personal statement of theological esteem for the old rite.
The verdict is therefore deeds-based and cautiously positive: on the one measurable act that mattered, he preserved rather than suppressed the ancient Mass. Absent any restrictive decree and with the daily TLM continuing five years on, he stands among the more permissive American bishops toward Tradition. The caution is only that the favorable signal rests on preservation-by-non-interference and a chancellor's statement rather than a personal championing of the traditional liturgy.