Bishop Thompson, rest in peace

Most Reverend David B. Thompson

1923 - 2013

Pastor of the Cathedral: 1975 - 1989

Most Reverend David B. Thompson, retired Bishop of the Diocese of Charleston, died on Sunday, November 24.

Bishop Thompson was 90 years old. He served as the eleventh bishop of Charleston from 1990-1999.

He was born May 29, 1923, in Philadelphia, one of three children of the late David B. and Catharine A. (McLaughlin) Thompson. He attended St. Alice and St. Carthage parochial schools and graduated from West Catholic High School in 1941. In September of that year, he began studies for the priesthood at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, in Wynnewood, PA, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degree in history. He was ordained a priest in the Philadelphia Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul on May 27, 1950, by the late Bishop J. Carroll McCormick, who was then the Auxiliary Bishop of Philadelphia.

He was named the pastor of the Cathedral Church of St. Catharine of Siena on Feb. 20, 1975, serving in this capacity until May 24, 1989.

He moved to Charleston in 1989 when Pope John Paul II appointed the then Monsignor Thompson as Coadjutor Bishop of Charleston. He assumed his duties as Bishop of Charleston in February of 1990 when the former bishop retired.

When Bishop Thompson retired in 1999, he continued to serve the diocese. He also served in weekend ministry at Christ Our King Catholic Church in Mount Pleasant.