BISHOP-ELECT FATHER JAMES VANN JOHNSTON

Father James Vann Johnston, Jr., was born on October 16, 1959, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is the oldest of the four children of Vann and Patricia (Huber) Johnston. He has two sisters, Amy Iverson and Beth Schmitt, both of Knoxville, and one brother, Steve, of Jackson, Tennessee. Father Johnston attended Catholic primary and secondary schools: St. Joseph School and Knoxville Catholic high School respectively. As a youth he was very active in the Boy Scouts of America and was awarded the rank of Eagle Scout.

Following high school, he attended the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and obtained a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1982. From 1982-1985 he worked in Houston, Texas, for an engineering consulting firm and for an electric utility. In 1985, he left his occupation to pursue a call to the priesthood. From 1985-1990 he attended St. Meinrad College and School of Theology where he obtained his Master of Divinity degree. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Knoxville on June 9, 1990, at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville, his home parish.

Since his ordination, Father Johnston has served as an associate pastor at St. Mary Church in Oak Ridge and at St. Jude Church in Chattanooga, where he also served as a religion instructor at Notre Dame High School. He pursued graduate studies at the Catholic University of America, where he obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law (1996). In 1996 he was named Chancellor of the Diocese of Knoxville and part-time associate pastor at Holy Ghost Church in Knoxville, where he served until 2002. He presently serves as both Chancellor and Moderator of the Curia of the Diocese of Knoxville and is pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in Alcoa, along with its mission, St. Francis, Townsend. He serves on the presbyteral council, and is a member of the diocesan college of consultors as well as a corporate member of the Catholic Charities of East Tennessee. He is also a member of the Catholic Public Policy Commission of Tennessee and is active with the Knights of Columbus, Catholic Engaged Encounter and the Catholic Cursillo movement.

In addition to his priestly ministry, he enjoys sports and spending time hiking and exploring the mountains, woods and terrain of East Tennessee and other portions of the United States and Canada. In 2005 he, along with two other priests from Tennessee, received the Citizen’s Award for Bravery from the U.S. Department of the Interior for helping save a father and two of his children from plunging over a waterfall in Glacier National Park in Montana. The award is given to “private citizens for their heroic acts or unusual bravery in the face of danger.”

Bishop-Elect Johnston will be installed on Monday, March 31, 2008.