David Konderla
David Andrew Konderla was born June 3, 1960, in Bryan, Texas. A relatively late vocation, he studied at Holy Trinity Seminary and the University of Dallas and earned a Master of Divinity from St. Mary's Seminary in Houston, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Austin on June 3, 1991. From 2005 to 2016 he served as pastor and director of campus ministry at St. Mary's Catholic Center serving Texas A&M University, one of the largest campus ministries in the United States.
Pope Francis appointed him the fourth Bishop of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma on May 13, 2016; he was ordained and installed on June 29, 2016. His episcopal motto is Nisi Dominus aedificaverit ('Unless the Lord builds'). A woodworker by hobby, he hand-carved his own crosier before his consecration. As of mid-2026 he continues to govern the diocese; at age 66 he is well short of the retirement age of 75.
Konderla's record on Tradition is uneven. Shortly after taking office in 2016 he removed a traditional exorcist priestly society (the Doloran Fathers) from the diocese and told the religious community associated with Mother Miriam to find another diocese. Yet in 2021 his decree implementing Traditionis Custodes was comparatively generous, retaining the FSSP parish and permitting the 1962 Missal at two diocesan parishes on any day of the year. In 2025, however, he tightened that policy and dissolved the long-standing Traditional Latin Mass community at Sts. Peter and Paul. His diocese also contains Clear Creek Abbey, a large traditional Benedictine monastery that, as a sui juris house, is largely outside the reach of Traditionis Custodes.
- 2021-07-30By decree implementing Traditionis Custodes, retained the FSSP parish of Most Precious Blood and permitted the 1962 Missal at Sts. Peter and Paul, Tulsa, and Holy Cross, Wagoner, on any or all days of the year. ↗
- 2025-06-29Restricted the diocesan celebration of the 1962 Missal to two parishes - Most Precious Blood, Tulsa (FSSP) and Holy Cross, Wagoner - ending the Sunday Mass in the older rite at Sts Peter and Paul, Tulsa, which his own 2021 decree had permitted, effective June 29, 2025. SOURCING, stated plainly: the diocese has not published the letter. The single origin for this is a traditionalist blog, which states it is reproducing the letter read publicly from the pulpit and distributed to those attending; the letter appears there as an image and is not machine-readable, so its wording is not verified here. The Latin Mass Directory records the same cancellation effective June 29, 2025 but cites that same blog, so it repeats rather than corroborates it. The earlier wording of this entry - that he 'dissolved the 13-year Traditional Latin Mass community' - was the blog's framing and is not asserted: what is supportable is the restriction and the ending of the Mass at that parish. ↗
Bishop Konderla's dealings with the traditional movement resist a simple label. His first months in Tulsa in 2016 were unfriendly to Tradition: he removed the Doloran Fathers, a traditional exorcist society his predecessor had welcomed, pushed out a religious community, and ended the cathedral's Sunday ad orientem Latin Mass and Vespers. That start suggested a bishop cool toward the older forms.
Yet his 2021 decree implementing Traditionis Custodes was, by the standards of that document, notably generous. He retained the FSSP's Most Precious Blood parish, judged that the traditional priests and faithful of the diocese did not reject Vatican II, called them 'a source of grace and zeal for the faith,' and permitted the 1962 Missal at Sts. Peter and Paul and Holy Cross 'on any or all days of the year.' He also affirmed Clear Creek Abbey, the diocese's traditional Benedictine monastery, as 'a great gift.' Because Clear Creek is a sui juris monastery under the Congregation for Religious rather than a diocesan parish community, it lies largely outside the scope of Traditionis Custodes and has continued its full traditional monastic and liturgical life.
The 2025 reversal is the decisive mark against him. Effective June 29, 2025, he dissolved the 13-year Latin Mass community at Sts. Peter and Paul and restricted the diocesan Traditional Latin Mass to just two locations -- the FSSP parish and distant Holy Cross in Wagoner -- citing Traditionis Custodes and a lack of Vatican permissions. Faithful complained of little transparency and of no serious effort to reassign a priest to save the community. Judged by deeds and their dates, Konderla is neither a champion nor an outright enemy of the old Mass: comparatively accommodating in 2021, but an active agent of restriction in 2025. Hence a mixed record, trending toward suppression.