Kevin C. Rhoades

On October 14, 2004, Rhoades was appointed as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on December 9, 2004, from Cardinal Justin Rigali, with Cardinal Keeler and Bishop Thomas Olmsted serving as co-consecrators. Rhoades selected as his episcopal motto: Veritatem In Caritate, meaning, "Truth in Charity" (Ephesians 4:15).

Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Rhoades was a member of the Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, the Committee on Pastoral Practices, and the Subcommittee on the Catechism. He chaired the Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth.

In 2006, Rhoades recommended to the Vatican that William Presley, a priest in the diocese, be laicized. Presley had faced allegations of sexual abuse in the 1970's when he was assigned to the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. In his letter, Rhoades termed Presley as a "sexual predator" and a danger to the Catholic community. The Presley case was revealed in 2018 by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury investigation of sexual abuse in the church.[2] The grand jury also revealed that in 2007 Rhoades told the Vatican that he had ordered a second priest accused of sexual abuse to spend the rest of his life in penance. In both cases, Rhoades reported the accused priest to law enforcement, but not to the general public, fearing a scandal.[2]

On November 14, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named Rhoades as the ninth bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend. At a special Vespers service at the Cathedral on Sunday, January 3, 2010, the Diocese of Harrisburg made a formal farewell to Rhoades. In 2011, he became the first bishop to grant an imprimatur to an iPhone application.[3] During the 2017 Fall General Assembly of the USCCB, Rhoades was elected chair of the Conference's Committee on Doctrine.[4]

On August 1, 2018, Bishop Ronald Gainer, Rhoades' successor as bishop of Harrisburg, announced that the names of every bishop of Harrisburg from 1947 onward—including Rhoades' -- would be removed from any building or room in the diocese named in their honor. This action was due to the bishops' failures to protect parishioners from sexual abuse by clerics. A room in St. Patrick Cathedral was named after Rhodes.[5][6][2]

On August 17, 2018, Rhoades announced that he would release the full list of clergy in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend who were credibly accused of sexual abuse "in a matter of weeks."[7] Rhoades noted that he previously listed the names of three priests who he removed from the diocese due to allegations of sexual abuse.[8][9] On September 18, 2018, Rhoades released the names of 18 priests and deacons who were credibly accused of sexually abusing minors.[10][11] That same month, an unidentified male claimed that Rhoades had sexually abused him as a minor. After a brief investigation, the Dauphin County District Attorney declared the accusation to be unfounded.[12]

A lawsuit against Rhoades and the Diocese of Harrisburg was filed in July 2019 by Donald Asbee, a Pennsylvania resident. Asbee alleged that he was sexually abused as a boy by two diocesan priests and that the diocese and its bishops tried to cover up the priests' crimes. The Diocese of Harrisburg had offered Asbee a $176,875 settlement, but he rejected it and sued instead.[12]

Rhoades is a leading member of the USCCB's National Eucharistic Revival. For the feast of Corpus Christi in 2022, he arranged a Eucharistic Procession in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend which drew nearly 5,000 participants and garnered national attention. [13]

On November 16, 2022, Rhoades was elected as chair of the USCCB's Committee on Religious Liberty. [14]