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Biography
Bishop Michael F. Olson, S.T.D., M.A., was born on June 29, 1966, in Park Ridge, Illinois, to the marriage of Ronald and Janice Olson (nee. Fetzer). His father is a Lutheran and his mother was a Roman Catholic. He was raised in Des Plaines, Illinois. He was ordained a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth on June 3, 1994. He was ordained and installed as the fourth Bishop of Fort Worth on January 29, 2014.
He was the recipient of the Theodore Basselin Fellowship in Philosophy at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He earned his B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America in 1988 and 1989. He earned an M.A.T.S. and M.Div. from the University of Saint Thomas in Houston in May 1994. After graduate studies at the Center for Health Care Ethics as a Presidential Fellow at Saint Louis University, he earned his doctorate in moral theology at the Academia Alfonsiana in Rome with a concentration in Bioethics. His Dissertation is entitled The Function of Prudence in Withholding/Withdrawal of Assisted Hydration and Nutrition from PVS Patients: A Consideration of the Approach of Germain Grisez.
He was a member of faculty at Saint Mary’s Seminary in Houston, lectured at the University of Saint Thomas School of Theology, the University of Dallas, and served as rector of Holy Trinity Seminary from July 1, 2008 until his appointment on November 19, 2013, by Pope Francis to serve as the Bishop Of Fort Worth. Since August 2008, Bishop Olson has participated as a regular panelist of the ecumenical television show, the American Religious Town Hall.
Since his appointment as the Bishop of Fort Worth, he has served in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) as a member of the following committees: Committee on International Peace and Justice, Committee on Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations, Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People, and the Committee of Doctrine, Chair of the Subcommittee on Heath Care Issues.