James Michael Moynihan

James Michael Moynihan (July 6, 1932 – March 6, 2017) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the ninth Bishop of Syracuse.

James Moynihan was born in Rochester, New York, to Michael Joseph and Carolyn Elizabeth (née Horigan) Moynihan; he had one sister, Carol Anne. He graduated Nazareth Hall School for Boys in 1946, and then attended St. Andrew's Seminary High School until 1950, and St. Andrew and St. Bernard Seminary College, graduating in 1954 with his Bachelor of Arts degree. Moynihan then traveled to Rome, where he studied at the Pontifical North American College, from where he obtained his licentiate in theology, and the Pontifical Gregorian University, earning a doctorate in canon law summa cum laude. He was ordained to the priesthood, for the Diocese of Rochester, by Archbishop Martin O'Connor on December 15, 1957, at the chapel of the North American College.

Upon his return to the United States, Moynihan became associate pastor at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Rochester in 1961, also serving as defender of the bond and promoter of justice in the diocesan tribunal (1961–1966). He was the private secretary of Bishop James Kearney from 1963 to 1966, and was later made Vice-Chancellor (1965) and Chancellor (1967) of Rochester.