The Most Rev. Walter F. Sullivan is the eleventh bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. Bishop Sullivan was born on June 10, 1928, in Washington, D.C.

He received his seminary education at St. Charles College and St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Richmond on May 9, 1953.

He served as associate pastor at St. Andrew's Parish in Roanoke and St. Mary's Parish in Fort Monroe (Hampton). In 1960, he received a degree in Canon law from the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and became Secretary of the Diocesan Tribunal in May of that year.

The then Father Sullivan was named Chancellor of the diocese in February, 1965, and rector of the Cathedral in October of 1967. He was ordained an auxiliary bishop for the diocese on December 1, 1970, and was installed as the Bishop of the newly redrawn Diocese of Richmond on July 19, 1974.

Bishop Sullivan serves on the boards of Christian Children's Fund based in Richmond; the Churches' Center for Theology and Public Policy in Washington, D.C.; Pax Christi USA; the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy; the Catholic Committee of Appalachia; and numerous diocesan boards. He has been on the board of the National Catholic Office for Persons with Disabilities and on the Administrative Board of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Bishop Sullivan is a national leader of the religious community's involvement in the work of justice and peace. He is the Bishop-President of Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement. He assumed that office in August of 1991. He also served on the writing committee for the 10th anniversary statement of US Catholic Bishops' peace pastoral, The Harvest of Justice is Sown in Peace (1993).