Barry Christopher Knestout (born June 11, 1962) is an American Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Richmond since 2017. Previously, Knestout served as the priest secretary for Cardinal James Hickey of Washington and then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. Knestout also served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, assisting Cardinal Donald Wuerl.

Biography

Early life

Barry Knestout was born in Cheverly,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

, on June 11, 1962, to Thomas and Caroline Knestout. Thomas was a deacon who served as a cryptologist for the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

and as the director of the Office of the Permanent Diaconate for the Archdiocese of Washington. Barry Knestout has five brothers and three sisters. A younger brother, Mark Knestout, is a priest in the Archdiocese of Washington. As a child, Barry Knestout lived with his family in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, for four years. On returning to the United States, he attended St. Pius X School and Bowie Senior High School, both in

Bowie, Maryland Bowie () is a city in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. Per the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 58,329. Bowie has grown from a small railroad stop to the largest municipality in Prince George's County; i ...

. Knestout then studied at the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

in College Park, Maryland, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture in 1984. In 1985, having decided to become a priest, Knestout entered Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland. He earned a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and ...

degree in 1988 and a Master of Theology degree in moral theology in 1989.

Priesthood

Knestout was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Washington at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., by Cardinal James Hickey on June 24, 1989. After his ordination, the archdiocese assigned Knestout to serve as associate pastor at the following parishes: * St. Bartholomew in

Bethesda, Maryland Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...

(1989 to 1993) * St. Peter in Waldorf, Maryland (1993 to 1994) Hickey named Knestout as his priest-secretary in 1994, a position he would hold until Hickey's death in 2004. The Vatican raised Knestout to the rank of

monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

in 1999. In 2001, Hickey appointed Knestout as executive director of the archdiocesan office of youth ministry, a post he held for two years. Knestout also served as priest-secretary for McCarrick from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, the archdiocese assigned Knestout to serve as

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

of St. John the Evangelist Parish in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

. McCarrick appointed him as archdiocesan secretary for pastoral life and social concerns in 2006. In April 2007, Knestout became

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

and moderator of the curia of the archdiocese. In 2008, Wuerl appointed Knestout to co-chair the Papal Visit Planning Committee in 2008, overseeing preparations for Pope Benedict XVI's 2008 visit to the United States. In planning the papal visit, Knestout collaborated with his brother Mark, who was director of the archdiocese Office of Worship at the time. Barry Knestout ran a contest for

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

students at

The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Catholic research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is one of two pontifical universities of the Catholic Church in the United States – the only one that is not primarily ...

in Washington to design the altar and chair for the pope to use when celebrating mass at

Nationals Park Nationals Park is a baseball stadium along the Anacostia River in the Navy Yard (Washington, D.C.), Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Washington Nationals. Since its completion in 2008, it wa ...

in that city. The Vatican later awarded Knestout a Holy Cross ''Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice'' for his work on the papal visit.

Auxiliary Bishop of Washington

Coat of arms of Barry Christopher Knestout

On November 18, 2008, Knestout was appointed

titular bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of Leavenworth and an

auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

of Washington by Benedict XVI. He was consecrated on December 29, 2008, by Wuerl, with Bishops Francisco Valer and Martin Holley serving as co-consecrators, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Knestout was the first native of Prince George's County in Maryland to serve as a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

for the archdiocese.

Bishop of Richmond

On December 5, 2017, Knestout was appointed the 13th bishop of Richmond by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

. He was installed on January 12, 2018, at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Richmond, Virginia. In February 2019, Knestout released a list of 42 diocesan priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. In June 2018, following McCarrick's resignation from the

college of cardinals The College of Cardinals (), also called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. there are cardinals, of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Appointed by the pope, ...

, Knestout denied knowing of any sexual abuse allegations against McCarrick while serving as his priest-secretary:

My first assignment was in 2001 while still serving as priest-secretary to Cardinal James A. Hickey. I was asked to also assist as priest-secretary to his successor, Cardinal McCarrick for six months. Despite the double assignment during those six months, most of my time was spent with the elderly Cardinal Hickey – with whom I worked for nearly a decade. In 2003, I was assigned to the Chancery for a year as one of two priest-secretaries at the time for Cardinal McCarrick as his appointment scheduler. During that year, Cardinal McCarrick traveled frequently in his work with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and in his other duties as Cardinal.

In May 2020, Knestout suspended Reverend Mark White from ministry for violations of

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

. White had been writing a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

that accused Knestout, Francis and the church hierarchy of covering up McCarrick's crimes. In 2019, Knestout had ordered White to stop writing the blog. When White resumed it later that year, Knestout obtained a trespass order, barring him from church properties. In June 2020, White's petition to the Congregation for Clergy in Rome to remain in his parishes was rejected. In October 2020, Knestout announced a $6.3 million settlement to 51 people who were sexually abused as children by diocesan clergy. He also established the Independent Reconciliation Program to help heal the victims. In February 2023, Knestout protested a leaked internal memo from the Richmond office of the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

(FBI). The memo mentioned the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) and the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) as possible contact points in the Richmond area for

white nationalists White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wav ...

. Several days earlier, the FBI had retracted the memo. Knestout in February 2024 condemned the proposed Death with Dignity bill in the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

that would have legalized

assisted suicide Assisted suicide, sometimes restricted to the context of physician-assisted suicide (PAS), is the process by which a person, with the help of others, takes actions to end their life. Once it is determined that the person's situation qualifie ...

supervised by a physician.

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knestout, Barry Christopher 1962 births Living people People from Cheverly, Maryland 21st-century American Roman Catholic titular bishops University of Maryland, College Park alumni Mount St. Mary's University alumni Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington Roman Catholic bishops of Richmond Roman Catholic bishops in Washington, D.C. Religious leaders from Maryland Catholics from Maryland