Daniel W. Herzog


Daniel William Herzog is a retired bishop of the Episcopal Church, who served in the Diocese of Albany from 1998 to 2007. After his retirement, he became a Roman Catholic, but returned to the Episcopal Church three years later.

Biography

Herzog was born in Ogdensburg, New York, and raised in the Roman Catholic Church. In 1964 he graduated from St. Bonaventure University. He married and had five children. He and his wife joined the Episcopal Church in the late 1960s. Herzog studied at Nashotah House, graduating in 1970, and was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. In 1971 he received a master's degree in education from St. Lawrence University.
He served as director of personnel at the St. Lawrence Psychiatric Center in Ogdensburg while serving as assistant rector of an Episcopal parish there. He later served as Rector of Christ Church, Schenectady.
In 1997 he was elected Coadjutor-Bishop of Albany; he was elected on the first ballot. The following year he succeeded as 8th Bishop of Albany when Bishop David Standish Ball retired. In 2003 he issued a pastoral letter opposing the election of Gene Robinson, a gay man, as Bishop of New Hampshire, and opposing the blessing of sexual relationships outside marriage.

Retirement, conversion, and return

Herzog retired as Bishop of Albany on January 31, 2007. He was succeeded by Bishop William Love, who had been elected coadjutor bishop on March 25, 2006.
In March 2007, Herzog and his wife Carol joined the Roman Catholic Church. He was the third bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States to become a Roman Catholic, the others being Levi Silliman Ives in 1852 and Frederick Joseph Kinsman in 1919. Herzog explained his conversion in a letter sent to his successor Bishop Love on March 19, 2007. Herzog's predecessor in Albany, Bishop Ball, expressed concern at Herzog's conversion. His successor, Bishop Love, stated that Herzog and his wife would continue to be welcome at diocesan events.
In April 2010, presiding bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori promulgated his restoration to the ordained ministry of the Episcopal Church. His return to ECUSA was page one news.