Barry Christopher Knestout

Barry Christopher Knestout (born June 11, 1962) is an American Catholic prelate who has served as bishop of Richmond in Virginia since 2017.

Previously, Knestout served as the priest secretary for Cardinal James Hickey of Washington and then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Knestout also served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington in the District of Columbia, assisting Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

Biography

Early life Barry Knestout was born in Cheverly, Maryland, on June 11, 1962, to Thomas and Caroline Knestout. Thomas was a deacon who served as a cryptologist for the National Security Agency and as the director of the Office of the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Washington. Barry Knestout has five brothers and three sisters. A younger brother, Mark Knestout, is a priest in the Archdiocese of Washington.

As a child, Barry Knestout lived with his family in Ankara, Turkey, for four years. On returning to the United States, he attended St. Pius X School and Bowie Senior High School, both in Bowie, Maryland. Knestout then studied at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture in 1984.

Priesthood Knestout was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., by Cardinal James Hickey on June 24, 1989. After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned Knestout to serve as associate pastor at the following parishes:

St. Bartholomew in Bethesda, Maryland (1989 to 1993) St. Peter in Waldorf, Maryland (1993 to 1994)

Auxiliary Bishop of Washington

On November 18, 2008, Knestout was appointed titular bishop of Leavenworth and an auxiliary bishop of Washington by Benedict XVI. Knestout was consecrated on December 29, 2008, by Wuerl, with Bishops Francisco Valer and Martin Holley serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. In June 2018, following McCarrick's resignation from the college of cardinals, Knestout denied knowing of any sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick while serving as his priest-secretary: My first assignment was in 2001 while still serving as priest-secretary to Cardinal James A. Hickey. I was asked to also assist as priest-secretary to his successor, Cardinal McCarrick for six months. Despite the double assignment during those six months, most of my time was spent with the elderly Cardinal Hickey – with whom I worked for nearly a decade. In 2003, I was assigned to the Chancery for a year as one of two priest-secretaries at the time for Cardinal McCarrick as his appointment scheduler. During that year, Cardinal McCarrick traveled frequently in his work with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and in his other duties as Cardinal.In May 2020, Knestout suspended Reverend Mark White from ministry for violations of canon law. White had been writing a blog that accused Knestout, Francis and the church hierarchy of covering up McCarrick's crimes. In 2019, Knestout had ordered White to stop writing the blog. When White resumed it later that year, Knestout obtained a trespass order, barring him from church properties. In June 2020, White's petition to the Congregation for Clergy in Rome to remain in his parishes was rejected.

In October 2020, Knestout announced a $6.3 million settlement to 51 people who were sexually abused as children by diocesan clergy. He also established the Independent Reconciliation Program to help heal the victims. In February 2023, Knestout protested a leaked internal memo from the Richmond office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The memo mentioned the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) as possible contact points in the Richmond area for white nationalists. Several days earlier, the FBI had retracted the memo. Knestout in July 2023 announced the suspension from ministry of Reverend Walter Lewis, a retired priest. The diocese had received allegations that Lewis had committed acts of sexual abuse while serving as pastor of St. Anne Parish in Bristol, Virginia.

Viewpoints

Abortion In February 2018, Knestout criticized US Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner for voting against the proposed Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which failed to pass in the US Senate.

Euthanasia Knestout in February 2024 condemned the proposed Death with Dignity bill in the Virginia General Assembly that would have legalized assisted suicide supervised by a physician.