Background
Bishop Choby was born in Nashville and baptized in the Cathedral Church of the Incarnation, where he would eventually be consecrated a bishop. Choby is the son of Raymond and Rita Choby, both deceased.
Bishop Choby was born in Nashville and baptized in the Cathedral Church of the Incarnation, where he would eventually be consecrated a bishop. Choby is the son of Raymond and Rita Choby, both deceased.
He attended Catholic schools growing up, and he graduated from Father Ryan High School in 1965. Later, he studied at Catholic University of America in Washington, District of Columbia
He is the 11th and current Bishop of Nashville, having previously served as Diocesan Administrator (2004–2006). He has one sister, Diane C. Dyche of Fort Worth, Texas. After spending one year at Aquinas College in Nashville, Bishop Choby entered the seminary at Saint Ambrose College in Davenport, Iowa.
Bishop Choby received the Sacrament of Holy Orders and was ordained a priest on September 6, 1974, by Joseph A. Durick, Bishop of Nashville at Saint Henry Church in Belle Meade.
Bishop Choby served a number of assignments in the Diocese of Nashville before being consecrated bishop. From 1989 until his consecration as bishop, Bishop Choby was the parish pastor at Saint John Vianney Parish in Gallatin, where he was active in the community and in the local ministerial association.
Bishop Choby is an alumnus of the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas Angelicum in Rome where he earned a Canon Law degree. He also has served two five-year terms on the diocese’s Presbyteral Council and College of Consultors.
From 1984 to 1989, Bishop Choby was on the faculty of the Pontifical College Josephinum, a prestigious seminary in Columbus, Ohio.
Sede vacante
On August 12, 2004, Pope John Paul II appointed the 10th Bishop of Nashville, Edward U. Kmiec, as the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New New York Bishop Choby, then a priest in diocese of Nashville, was elected Diocesan Administrator by the Diocesan College of Consultors. Appointment as bishop
Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Nashville on December 20, 2005.
He is only the second priest of the diocese since it was founded in 1837 to be tapped as its bishop.
The others have all come from outside the diocese. Bishop Choby was consecrated and installed as Bishop of Nashville on February 27, 2006, in the Cathedral Church of the Incarnation.
The principal consecrator was Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly of the Archdiocese of Louisville, Kentucky. Bishop Choby chose as his episcopal motto: "That We May Live," a quotation from the Fourth Eucharistic Prayer.
He served as a member of the Diocesan Tribunal throughout most of his priesthood, prior to becoming bishop. Since becoming bishop, Bishop Choby has been a member of the seminary’s board of trustees.