The Most Reverend Thomas John Paprocki was named the Bishop of Springfield in Illinois on April 20, 2010 by his Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.
For his episcopal motto Bishop Paprocki has retained the Latin motto "LEX CORDIS CARITAS." This phrase, which is based on the texts from the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 31:33), Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 13:10) and the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on The Church (Lumen Gentium (LG-#9)), expresses Bishop Paprocki’s profound belief, as both a civil and a canon lawyer, that, truly, “the law of the heart is love.”
Bishop Paprocki was born on August 5, 1952, in Chicago. He was ordained to the priesthood in Mundelein, IL on May 10, 1978 for the Archdiocese of Chicago. After ordination, he studied law at DePaul University College of Law and was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1981. On January 24, 2003, Pope John Paull II appointed him to serve as Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago. He was installed as the ninth bishop of Springfield in Illinois on June 22, 2010.