Richard Vincent Whelan
| Rt Rev. Richard Vincent Whelan | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Wheeling | |
 |
|
| Church | Roman Catholic Church |
| See | Wheeling |
| In office | July 23, 1850 – July 7, 1874 |
| Predecessor | Patrick Kelly |
| Successor | John Joseph Kain |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | May 1, 1831 |
| Consecration | March 21, 1841 |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 28, 1809 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | July 7, 1874 (aged 65) Baltimore, Maryland |
| Previous post | Bishop of Richmond (1841–1850) |
Richard Vincent Whelan (January 28, 1809 – July 7, 1874) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Richmond, Virginia (1841–1850) and Bishop of Wheeling, West Virginia (1850–1874).
Whelan was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and at age 10 he enrolled at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, where he studied the classics. Following his graduation with the highest honors in 1826, he completed his theological studies at the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, France. He was ordained to the priesthood in Versailles on May 1, 1831.
Returning to the United States, Whelen became a faculty member and business manager at Mount St. Mary's, and also served as pastor of Harper's Ferry. His pastoral responsibilities included missions at Martinsburg, Winchester and Bath (each separated by significant horseback journeys) as well as numerous Catholic families who could not access Catholic institutions of any kind.
On December 19, 1840, Whelan was appointed the second Bishop of Richmond, Virginia, by Pope Gregory XVI. He received his episcopal consecration on March 21, 1841 from Archbishop Samuel Eccleston, P.S.S., with Bishops Benedict Joseph Fenwick, S.J., and John Joseph Hughes serving as co-consecrators, at Baltimore. The second Catholic bishop in the United States, Bishop Jean Dubois had similarly initially lived in Richmond, but soon moved the seat of his extremely large diocese west (to Bardstown, Kentucky) to serve Catholics in remote mountain areas, as well as to escape anti-Catholic and other civil strife in Virginia's capitol. Furthermore, after the brief American episcopate of his predecessor, the seat had been vacant for more than a decade before Whelan's appointment and consecration, and Richmond had become a stronghold of the Know-Nothing political party, known for its anti-Catholic and racial prejudices and propensity for mob violence.
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