Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson, Bishop of Yakima

The Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson currently serves as Bishop of the Diocese of Yakima in central Washington. In 2005, he was consecrated Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle and named Vicar General, and from 2008-2011, he served as Superintendent of Catholic Schools. He was installed as Bishop of Yakima in 2011 and currently serves as a member of the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Pastoral Care for Migrants, Refugees, and Travelers, and Hispanic Affairs, and Committee member of Migration and Refugee Services, and member of the Committee for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

The Diocese of Yakima has roughly 40 parishes and mission churches and regularly serves about 170,000 Catholics. During harvest time, however, an additional 100,000 migrant workers reside in the region, most of whom are Spanish-speaking Latinos. Confronted with this reality, Bishop Tyson saw an opportunity to both serve the migrants in the fields and help form future priests in the diocese. Shortly after his installation in the Diocese of Yakima, Bishop Tyson began a migrant ministry program, requiring that all seminarians in the diocese spend a summer working in the fields alongside the migrant workers. It’s an opportunity to bring Mass to the workers, many of whom would not have the ability to go otherwise, but it’s also a key part of the seminarians’ formation. “It’s important that our future priests know in their bones the labor of the bread and the wine,” says Tyson, “and know the lives behind our agricultural workers.” Bishop Tyson’s degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in Russian and Eastern European Studies as well as Editorial Journalism from the University of Washington, a Masters in International Relations from the University of Washington, a Masters of Divinity from the Catholic University of America, and an honorary Doctorate of Letters from St. Martin’s University in Lacy.