Olmsted previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Wichita in Kansas from 2001 to 2003. On June 10, 2022, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as bishop of Phoenix.
Biography
Early life
Thomas Olmsted was born on January 21, 1947, in Oketo, Kansas, to Pat and Helen Olmsted; he has two brothers and three sisters. Raised on a farm in Beattie, Kansas, he attended a single-room grade school and a small rural high school in Summerfield, Kansas. He then studied at St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary in Denver, Colorado, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1969.[1]
Olmsted automatically succeeded Gerber as the seventh bishop of Wichita when John Paul II accepted Gerber's resignation on October 4, 2001.[4][2]
Bishop of Phoenix
John Paul II named Olmsted as the fourth bishop of Phoenix on November 25, 2003.[2] He was installed on December 20, 2003, replacing Bishop Thomas O'Brien, who resigned after being arrested for his involvement in a fatal hit-and-run car accident.[5]
In 2008, after the diocese had spent several million dollars to settle about 20 lawsuits, Olmsted led an initiative to shield diocesan assets from further sex abuse claims by incorporating local parishes individually.[6]
Under Olmsted, the Diocese of Phoenix researched and cataloged an index of its clergymen accused of sexually abusing children and released some of their identities to the public. The diocese published a list of sexually abusive clergymen on its website. Joe Baca, the Phoenix director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, stated: "It's the right thing to do and I've got to give them that much. They need to use these names to help victims to come forward. But you know, there's still more they can do."[7]
In July 2021, in response to Pope Francis' motu proprio Traditionis Custodes, which restricts the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM), Olmsted issued a decree[8] allowing the TLM to continue in the diocese under his dispensation pursuant to Canon 87 of the Code of Canon Law.
Early in 2022, one of Olmsted's pastors resigned after learning he that he had used the incorrect words when performing thousands of baptisms. Olmsted explained the importance of using the correct language in a letter to parishioners and said he believed the error, however inadvertent, required new baptisms.[9]
In May 2010, Olmsted declared that Sister Margaret McBride, a member of the ethics committee of St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, was automatically excommunicated after permitting a patient to undergo an abortion there. The patient was a woman who was 11 weeks pregnant and suffering from pulmonary hypertension. Hospital doctors had told the committee that the likelihood of the patient dying if the pregnancy was not terminated to be "close to 100 percent".[17][18]
Olmsted accused McBride of permitting a "direct abortion," which according to the Catholic Church is always wrong.[19] He stated that she admitted to him giving “... her consent that the abortion was a morally good and allowable act according to Church teaching". "Since she gave her consent and encouraged an abortion she automatically excommunicated herself from the Church.”[20][21]
As a result of the McBride case, and because the hospital refused to ban future abortions, Olmsted on December 21, 2010, severed the diocese's ties with St. Joseph's and stated that it could no longer refer to itself as "a Catholic hospital".[22]
Relations with Sheriff Joe Arpaio
In 2009, a photograph showing Olmsted standing alongside of Joe Arpaio in the sheriff's Phoenix tent city jail surfaced, fueling reports that Olmsted had given Arpaio permission to use the photo in his re-election campaign materials. The allegations were repeatedly denied by the Phoenix diocese, which stated: "Despite these allegations, we are fairly certain this never happened, and if it did, it was something we were completely unaware of and done without Bishop Olmsted's knowledge or consent."[23]
"When it comes to direct attacks on innocent human life, being right on all the other issues can never justify a wrong choice on this most serious matter."[24]
On March 10, 2009, Olmsted spoke against President Barack Obama's decision to reverse restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, saying, "American taxpayers will now be paying for the killing of human beings at a very early stage in their lives (as embryos), so that scientific research can make use of them for experiments that may or may not yield positive results."[25] He also referred to embryonic stem cell research as "homicidal research".[25]
In March 2009, Olmsted criticized the University of Notre Dame for selecting Obama as the commencement speaker for its graduation ceremony and awarding him an honorary doctoral degree, calling the choice a "grave mistake." Olmsted said that Notre Dame's actions went against a previous decision of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in their June 2004 Statement “Catholics in Political Life”: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."[26]
LBGT rights
On September 12, 2008, Olmsted released a YouTube video[27] urging Arizona voters to vote for Proposition 102, a referendum to amend the Arizona Constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.[27] The proposition passed, but it was struck down in court in 2014.[28]
Immigration
On March 8, 2010, Olmsted signed a letter expressing concern over Arizona SB 1070. He indicated that if the law passed, it might instill fear in those undocumented immigrants who are crime victims and deter them from going to the police out of fears of deportation.[29]
