Joseph Thomas Daley


Joseph Thomas Daley was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Harrisburg from 1971 until his death in 1983.

Biography

Joseph Daley was born in Connerton, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, and studied at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Overbrook. He was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Dennis Joseph Dougherty on June 7, 1941. On November 25, 1963, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Harrisburg and Titular Bishop of Barca by Pope Paul VI. He received his episcopal consecration on January 7, 1964 from Archbishop John Krol, with Bishops George L. Leech and Gerald Vincent McDevitt serving as co-consecrators.
Daley was named Coadjutor Bishop of Harrisburg on July 31, 1967, and later succeeded Bishop Leech as the sixth Bishop of Harrisburg on October 19, 1971. During his 12-year-long tenure, he established the Diocesan Office of Planning, Diocesan Development Office, and Emmaus Program for priests. He called for a temporary moratorium on building nuclear power plants after the accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Harrisburg in 1979.
Daley later died from cancer, aged 67.

Removal of name in Diocese of Harrisburg

On August 1, 2018, Bishop Ronald Gainer, Daley's successor as bishop of Harrisburg, announced that the names of every bishop of Harrisburg from 1947 onward – including Daley's – will be removed from any building or room in the diocese named in their honor, due to their failure to protect victims from abuse.