Bishop Edward Wm. Clark was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and raised in Minnesota, Idaho and California (Orange County). He attended local schools in Los Angeles and graduated from St. John’s Seminary College in 1968.
Bishop Clark was ordained for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1972 and served as an associate pastor at Saint James Parish in Redondo Beach and Saint Joseph Parish in Pomona. He received a Masters Degree in Religion from Saint John’s Seminary in 1972 and a Masters Degree in Education from Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles in 1983. After serving in several Catholic High Schools of the Archdiocese, and as Principal of Paraclete High School in Lancaster, Bishop Clark attended the Gregorian University in Rome. He received a Licentiate Degree in Fundamental Theology in 1986 and a Doctoral Degree in Theology in 1988. From 1988 until 1990 he served as the Coordinator of Religious Formation and Instruction for the Catholic High Schools within the Archdiocese. Beginning in 1990 he was assigned to Saint John’s Major Seminary as an Assistant Professor of Theology and became a Full Professor in 1999. From 1994 until 2001, Bishop Clark also served as President and Rector of Saint John’s Seminary College and was promoted to Professor Emeritus of Saint John’s Major Seminary in May 2001.
Appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles in January 2001, Bishop Clark was ordained by Cardinal Roger Mahony to the Episcopacy in March 2001 and assigned to Our Lady of the Angels Pastoral Region, where he currently serves.
He is the author of the book Five Great Catholic Ideas, published in 1999 by Crossroad Press, and a number of articles published in magazines and professional journals. He is a member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Order of Malta. Currently he chairs the Education and Editorial Committees of the California Conference of Catholic Bishops and the California Catholic Conference and is a member of the California Bishops’ Task Force on Health Care.