Styles of John Thomas Folda
Reference style	His Excellency The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Bishop

John Thomas Folda (born August 8, 1961) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Fargo in North Dakota since 2013.

Biography

Early life

John Thomas Folda was born on August 8, 1961, in Omaha, Nebraska.^[1] He graduated from St. Thomas More Elementary School and Archbishop Ryan High School in Omaha and attended the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska, earning bachelor and masters degrees. Folda then attended St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, receiving a Master of Divinity degree.

Priesthood

Folda was ordained a priest by Bishop Glennon Flavin for the Diocese of Lincoln on May 27, 1989. He received a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome in 1993.^[2]

After his ordination, Folda served as an assistant pastor at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ Parish and taught religion at St. Pius X High School, both in Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1989 to 1991.^[3] From 1993 to 1995, he served as the pastor of St. Paulinus Parish in Syracuse, Nebraska and Holy Trinity Parish in Avoca, Nebraska. At the same time he was a teacher and counselor at Lourdes Central Catholic High School in Nebraska City, Nebraska.

Beginning in 1995, Folda served as pastor of St. Leo Parish in Palmyra, Nebraska and St. Martin Parish in Douglas, Nebraska. Folda was named the diocesan director of religious education and co-vicar for religious in 1997. The following year, he was named the spiritual director at St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward, Nebraska, and rector in 1998. Pope Benedict XVI named Folda a chaplain of his holiness, with the title "monsignor" in 2007.

Bishop of Fargo

Pope Francis named Folda as bishop of the Diocese of Fargo on April 8, 2013. He was consecrated on June 19, 2013 at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Fargo, North Dakota. Archbishop John Nienstedt was the principal consecrator. Archbishop Samuel Aquila and Bishop James D. Conley were the co-consecrators.^[1]

On July 2, 2021, Folda announced that Bishop James Sullivan, a former bishop of Fargo, had been added to a list of clerics with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. Sullivan, who died in 2006, had been accused of abusing two boys in Lansing, Michigan, when he was a priest. The diocese renamed a middle school named after Sullivan.^[4]