Thomas Olmsted

On February 16, 1999, Olmsted was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Wichita, Kansas, by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following April 20 from Bishop Eugene Gerber, with Archbishop James Keleher and Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz serving as co-consecrators, at the Century II Convention Center.[2] He selected as his episcopal motto: Jesus Caritas, or "Love of Jesus", the name of the priestly fraternity, founded by the Blessed Charles de Foucauld, to which he has belonged since 1974.[4] He succeeded Eugene Gerber as the seventh Bishop of Wichita upon Gerber's retirement on October 4, 2001.[2]

Olmsted was later named the fourth Bishop of Phoenix on November 25, 2003. Formally installed on December 20 of that year, he replaced Bishop Thomas O'Brien, who resigned after being arrested for his involvement in a fatal hit-and-run car accident.

• During the 2008 presidential election, Olmsted declared a candidate's position on abortion to be the most important consideration for voters, stating, "When it comes to direct attacks on innocent human life, being right on all the other issues can never justify a wrong choice on this most serious matter."[5]
• In 2008, after the diocese had spent several million dollars to settle about 20 lawsuits, Olmsted led an initiative to shield diocesan assets from further sex abuse claims by incorporating local parishes individually.[6]
• On September 12, 2008, Olmsted released a YouTube video[7] urging Arizona voters to vote for Proposition 102, a referendum to amend the Arizona constitution to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
• From January 2008 to February 2009, he was Apostolic Administrator of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, New Mexico, acting as that diocese's interim leader until the appointment of James S. Wall.[2]
• On March 8, 2010, Olmsted, as Bishop of Phoenix, joined in signing a letter with two other bishops of Arizona in expressing concern over Arizona SB 1070 indicating that if passed it might instill fear in those illegal immigrants who are victims of crime and deter them from going to the police out of fears of deportation.[8]
• On March 10, 2009, Olmsted spoke against President Barack Obama's decision to reverse restrictions on embryonic stem cell research, saying, "American taxpayers will now be paying for the killing of human beings at a very early stage in their lives (as embryos), so that scientific research can make use of them for experiments that may or may not yield positive results."[9] He also referred to embryonic stem cell research as "homicidal research".[9]
• In March 2009, the Bishop criticized the University of Notre Dame for selecting Obama as the commencement speaker for its graduation ceremony and awarding him an honorary doctoral degree, calling the choice a "grave mistake." Olmsted said that Notre Dame's actions went against a previous decision of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in their June 2004 Statement “Catholics in Political Life”: "The Catholic community and Catholic institutions should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles. They should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions."[10]
• Under Olmsted's tutelage, the Diocese of Phoenix researched and cataloged an index of its clergymen accused of sexually abusing children and released some of their identities to the public. The Diocese put out a list of sexually abusive clergymen on its website. Joe Baca, the Phoenix director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests stated: "It's the right thing to do and I've got to give them that much. They need to use these names to help victims to come forward. But you know, there's still more they can do."[11][12]

On August 1, 2018, Pope Francis named Olmsted as Apostolic Administrator sede plena of the Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of the Holy Protection of Mary of Phoenix[13][14]