Richard Edmund Pates (born February 12, 1943) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Pates served as bishop of the Diocese of Des Moines in Iowa from 2008 to 2019 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in Minnesota from 2000 to 2008. After his retirement, Pates served as apostolic administrator of both the Diocese of Joliet in Illinois and the Diocese of Crookston in Minnesota for short terms.