The Most Reverend Dr. Thomas George Doran (born February 20, 1936), D.D., is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Bishop of Rockford.
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Bishop Thomas Doran was born in Rockford, Illinois, and attended St. James Grade School and Campion High School, and graduated from Loras College and St. Pius X Seminary (Dubuque, Iowa) in 1958.[1] He then furthered his studies in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University, from where he obtained a Licentiate of Sacred Theology in 1962.[1] He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Loras Lane on December 20, 1961, in St. Peter's Basilica.[2]
Upon his return to the Diocese of Rockford, Doran served in many administrative, judicial, and pastoral capacities before returning to Rome in 1975 to complete a doctorate in canon law, which he earned in 1978.[1]
He then served as Chancellor, Judicial Vicar, Vicar for Catholic Education, and Rector of St. Peter's Cathedral in the Rockford Diocese.[1] In 1986, Pope John Paul II appointed him to be a Prelate Auditor of the Sacred Roman Rota.
On April 19, 1994, Doran was appointed the eighth Bishop of Rockford by John Paul II.[2] He received his episcopal consecration on the following June 24 from Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, with Bishops Arthur O'Neill and Joseph Galante serving as co-consecrators.[2] He selected as his episcopal motto: "Spes Anchora Vitae."[1]
As Bishop, Doran is the spiritual leader of 446,859 Catholics in Northwestern Illinois.[1] In 2000, he was named a member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. He is also a member of the Congregation for the Clergy, Board of Catholics United for the Faith, Board of Trustees of the Catholic University of America, and Institute on Religious Life.[1]
Bishop Doran was one of the earliest proponents of the Tridentine Mass. Before Summorum Pontificum, Bishop Doran was singled out in an article in The Wanderer as one of the few U.S. bishops "...who have been generous in the Ecclesia Dei indult application, as requested and emphasized repeatedly by the late Pope John Paul II."[3][4] The others being Archbishop Raymond Burke of St. Louis, Bishop Álvaro Corrada del Rio of Tyler, Texas; and Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.
In August 2006, Bishop Doran denounced the rate of abortions in the United States, saying, "We shall soon outstrip the Nazis in doing human beings to death."[5]
In late March 2009, Doran expressed his "dismay and outrage" at the decision of the University of Notre Dame to have President Barack Obama deliver its commencement speech and receive an honorary degree.[6] He even suggested that Notre Dame change its name to "The Fighting Irish College" or "Northwestern Indiana Humanist University."[6]