Richard Vincent Whelan (January 28, 1809 – July 7, 1874) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Wheeling from 1850 to 1874.

[1] Following his graduation with the highest honors in 1826, Whelan completed his theological studies at the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, France.

[2] Returning to Maryland, Whelan became a faculty member and business manager at Mount St. Mary's, and also served as pastor of a parish in Harper's Ferry, then in Virginia.

His pastoral responsibilities included missions at Martinsburg, Winchester and Bath, all in Virginia at that time These communities, separated by long distances, contained many families who could not access Catholic institutions of any kind.

[2] He received his episcopal consecration on March 21, 1841, from Archbishop Samuel Eccleston, with Bishops Benedict Fenwick and John Hughes serving as co-consecrators, at Baltimore.

Soon after his arrival in Richmond, Whelan appealed to the Societies for the Propagation of the Faith in Paris, Lyon, France, and Vienna in the Austrian Empire to recruit priests for the diocese.

A group established the Restored Government of Virginia in Wheeling and elected lawyer Francis H. Pierpont as its provisional governor.

[1] From 1869 to 1870, Whelan attended the First Vatican Council in Rome, where he opposed papal infallibility because he thought such a declaration would be untimely.