Most Reverend Thomas J. Rodi

Archbishop of Mobile

Most Reverend Thomas J. Rodi, a native of New Orleans, graduated from De La Salle High School in 1967 and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University in 1971. He returned to New Orleans where he earned a law degree from the Tulane University Law School in 1974, and then entered Notre Dame Seminary, where he received a Master of Divinity degree in 1978.

Ordained to the priesthood on May 20, 1978, the young priest served as associate pastor at St. Ann and St. Christopher the Martyr parishes, in Metairie, and at St. Agnes in Jefferson. In 1983 he was appointed judge for the Archdiocese of New Orleans Metropolitan Tribunal. He earned a Licentiate in Canon Law from The Catholic University of America in 1986, and served as professor of canon law at Notre Dame Seminary from 1986 to 1995.

While still in New Orleans, Archbishop Rodi served that archdiocese in two directorships, as Chancellor and ultimately as Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia. He was ordained a bishop and installed as Bishop of Biloxi on July 2, 2001. Seven years later, he was appointed Archbishop of Mobile on April 2, 2008 and installed on June 6, 2008.