David John Walkowiak

David John Walkowiak (born June 18, 1953) is an American Catholic prelate serving as the twelfth Bishop of Grand Rapids in Michigan since 2013.

Biography

Early life Walkowiak was born in East Cleveland, Ohio on June 18, 1953, to John and Virginia Walkowiak. He has three sisters, and the family is of Polish descent. He attended Saint Bernadette School in Westlake and then Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland. Walkowiak earned a Bachelor of Arts in government and international studies from the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, in 1975.

Walkowiak entered Saint Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, soon after his college graduation. He received a Master of Divinity from Saint Mary in 1979.

Priesthood Walkowiak was ordained to the priesthood at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist by Bishop James Aloysius Hickey for the Diocese of Cleveland on June 9, 1979.

After his 1979 ordination, the diocese assigned Walkowiak as pastoral vicar of Saint Mary Parish in Lorain, where he would remain for the next four years. In 1984, he entered Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Walkowiak received a Licentiate of Canon Law in 1984 and a Doctor of Canon Law in 1987.

On May 27, 2021, Walkowiak announced that Pope Francis had laicized William Langlois. The diocese had received allegations in 2018 that Langlois had sexually abused a parishioner when they were a minor between 1999 and 2006. The diocese immediately suspended Langlois, notified local authorities, and started an internal investigation.