PENNSYLVANIA
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Peter Smith / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
He was born in Pittsburgh, grew up in Ellwood City, got his undergraduate degree from Duquesne University and sensed a call to the Catholic priesthood here.
“I always envisioned I would be a pastor in a parish in Western Pennsylvania,” Bishop Edward Burns said Tuesday.
And he was — for a while. Then he went on to direct the recruitment and training of new priests in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., before heading to Alaska in 2009 to lead the smallest U.S. diocese.
Now he’ll be leading one of the largest.
Pope Francis on Tuesday named Bishop Burns, 59, to lead the Diocese of Dallas. It is the nation’s 11th largest, has 1.3 million Catholics and is growing fast, largely due to a Hispanic influx. In contrast, Bishop Burns’ current flock of 10,000 in the sprawling Diocese of Juneau could fit into a single Dallas parish.
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