The Most Reverend William Patrick Callahan, OFM. Conv., is a Conventual Franciscan of the St. Bonaventure Province in Chicago. A Chicago native, he graduated from Loyola University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Radio and Television Communications. He then earned his master’s of divinity degree from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. Bishop Callahan was ordained to the priesthood on April 30, 1977, by Milwaukee Archbishop William E. Cousins. He went on to serve parishes in Milwaukee and Peoria, was the Director of Vocations for his order and later Spiritual Director for the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Pope Benedict XVI named him an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on October 30, 2007. He was the first Conventual Franciscan to be named a bishop in the United States. On April 20, 2009, the College of Consultors elected him to serve as the administrator of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, a position he held until January 4, 2010 when Archbishop Jerome Listecki was installed as Archbishop of Milwaukee. On June 11, 2010 Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Callahan the Tenth Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Bishop Callahan currently serves on the boards for the Mundelein Seminary, Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology, the Pontifical North American College, and the National Religious Retirement Management Board.