The Most Reverend Patrick M. Neary, C.S.C., was born on March 6, 1963, in La Porte, Indiana, to Jacob and Marybelle Neary. He is the first-born of six children and has five sisters. His family belongs to St. Joseph Parish in La Porte, where the Neary siblings attended St. Joseph’s Grade School.
He graduated from La Porte High School in 1981 and entered the undergraduate seminary with the Congregation of Holy Cross at the University of Notre Dame. While at Notre Dame, he spent a semester at Anahuac University in Mexico City, where he learned Spanish. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in history.
After completing his novitiate year in Cascade, Colorado, Bishop Neary began his M.Div. studies in 1986 at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California. In 1988, he spent the entire year at the congregation’s seminary in Santiago, Chile, where he practiced his Spanish.
He professed perpetual vows with Congregation of Holy Cross on Sept. 1, 1990, and was ordained a priest at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at Notre Dame on April 6, 1991, by Bishop Paul Waldschmidt.
In 1994, Bishop Neary was assigned to the University of Notre Dame and worked in the Office of Campus Ministry, primarily ministering to Latino students at Notre Dame and serving as R.O.T.C. chaplain.
In 2000, he was appointed assistant rector at Moreau Seminary at Notre Dame and in 2004 was named rector of Moreau Seminary for a six-year term. He served on the Provincial Council of the U.S. Province of Priests and Brothers from 2003-2010, and served on the Vocation and Formation Commission of the General Administration for the Congregation of Holy Cross in Rome from 2002-2010.
When he finished his term as rector, Bishop Neary was asked to run the congregation’s seminary in Nairobi, Kenya, for two years to train a new team of formation personnel and build up the seminary program. He began his service in Nairobi in June 2010. The following year he was elected district superior of Holy Cross in East Africa and moved to the district headquarters in Uganda. There he served two three-year terms as district superior and finished his time of service in East Africa in January 2018.
Starting in July 2018, Bishop Neary began serving as pastor of Holy Redeemer Parish in Portland, Oregon. On Dec. 15, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him to be the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Saint Cloud. He was formally installed February 14, 2023.