Edward J. Burns

On December 13, 2016, Pope Francis appointed Burns the eighth Bishop of Dallas, Texas, to succeed Kevin Farrell, who was appointed Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life on September 1, 2016 (and would be elevated to Cardinal before the end of 2016). His installation was on February 9, 2017, at the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

On January 19, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Burns the fifth bishop of Juneau, Alaska. a diocese with a Catholic population of 6,100 in southeastern Alaska. He received his episcopal consecration on the following March 3 at the St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh from Bishop David Zubik, with Archbishops Roger Schweitz, OMI, and Donald Cardinal Wuerl serving as co-consecrators; this was separate from his installation ceremony for the convenience of friends in the 48 contiguous United States, because of the distance to Alaska. He chose as his episcopal motto "Pray with Confidence". He was installed in Juneau on April 2, 2009.

In 2008, he returned to his posts as rector of St. Paul Seminary and vocations director for the Pittsburgh diocese. In 2002 he was co-chairman of a Vatican-ordered congress on vocations in North America and in 2005-06 he provided support for a Vatican review of all Catholic seminaries in the U.S. He received the title of Monsignor in 2006.

He was also executive director of the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for nine years beginning in 1999. Under his leadership that office produced an award-winning DVD Fishers of Men on the lives of priests. He published a booklet, We Were There, that described the experiences of priests who served at the sites of destruction on 9/11.

He was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Vincent Leonard on June 25, 1983, and then served as parochial vicar at Our Lady of Lourdes in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania and Immaculate Conception in Washington, Pennsylvania. In 1991, Burns was made Vocations Director and Vice-Rector of St. Paul Seminary in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where he became Rector in 1996.

Edward James Burns (born October 7, 1957) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has served as the Bishop of Dallas, Texas, since 2017. He was previously the Bishop of Juneau, Alaska.