SEATTLE — Archbishop Paul D. Etienne, after consultation with the clergy and the Priest Personnel Board, has announced which priests will be assigned to the 60 parish families in the Archdiocese of Seattle. These appointments take effect July 1, 2024.

Most parish families will have a pastor and at least one parochial vicar or parish priest. Of note in this year’s assignments, nine priests will move to senior, or retired, priest status.

“These assignments are unlike any in our history, given the large number of priests who will serve a different parish family,” Archbishop Etienne wrote in a letter to the Catholics of Western Washington. 

Because of Partners in the Gospel, the archdiocese’s strategic pastoral planning initiative, most parishes will combine into parish families beginning July 1. This has necessitated pastoral changes at almost every parish.

“I am so grateful to the Priest Personnel Board for the countless hours dedicated to this work, for their prayerful discernment about each individual assignment,” Archbishop Etienne wrote. “We spoke directly with every priest and lay leader more than once about their assignments to ensure their gifts and talents would be a good match for the needs and desires of the new parish families.”

In addition to his letter to all the Catholics in the archdiocese, Archbishop Etienne sent personal letters to all parishes informing them of the appointments. The letters were expected to be shared with parishioners at Masses the weekend of April 6-7 so they could know both who is assigned to their parish and where their current priest(s) will move.

The archdiocese created a flipbook of all the assignments, arranged by parish family. Readers can easily find a parish or priest by clicking on a name in the lists provided on the flipbook’s first two pages.

Click below to read:


To view the official appointments in a PDF format, click here.

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 LEARN MORE

Wondering how the priest appointment process works? Find out in this interview with Father Gary Zender, the archdiocese’s vicar for clergy.

Read Archbishop Etienne’s letter to the Catholics of Western Washington in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Visit archseattle.org/partners for details about Partners in the Gospel and to sign up for the monthly email.