See Saint Cloud Name Donald Kettler Installed November 7, 2013 | Successor Incumbent Ordination May 29, 1970 Nationality American Consecration August 22, 2002 | |
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Born November 26, 1944 (age 79) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. ( 1944-11-26 ) Diocese Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud | ||
Donald Joseph Kettler (born November 26, 1944) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the fourth Bishop of Fairbanks and currently serves as the ninth Bishop of St. Cloud following his installation on November 7, 2013.
Life and church
Donald Kettler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Norbert Joseph 'Joe' Kettler and Marguerite Raiche. His family later moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Kettler and his three siblings (Jim, Beth, and Kathleen) were raised. He received undergraduate and divinity degrees at Saint John's University in Collegeville before being ordained to the priesthood on May 29, 1970.
Kettler then served as an associate pastor in Aberdeen and Sioux Falls until 1979, whence he began coordinating work for the diocesan offices of Sioux Falls. In 1981, he entered the Catholic University of America, from where he obtained his licentiate in canon law. Kettler was named judicial vicar of Sioux Falls in 1983, and resumed his work coordinating its diocesan offices from 1984 to 1987. During this time, he also began celebrating a weekly televised Mass.
After serving as rector of St. Joseph's Cathedral from 1987 to 1995, he was pastor of St. Lambert Parish from 1995 to 2000, and of Christ the King Parish from 2000 to 2002. Kettler was also a member of the Sioux Falls Diocesan Finance Council, Stewardship Committee, Catholic Family Services's Board of Directors the Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota's Board of Directors, and a Board Member of the Sioux Falls Catholic School System.
On June 7, 2002, Kettler was appointed the fourth Bishop of Fairbanks, Alaska, by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 22 from Archbishop Roger Schwietz, OMI, with Bishops Michael Warfel and Robert Carlson serving as co-consecrators. He is the first diocesan priest and non-Jesuit to head the diocese.
After a public announcement three weeks earlier, Bishop Kettler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, following unsuccessful negotiations to settle dozens of sexual abuse claims, on March 1, 2008. The Diocese of Fairbanks thus became the sixth diocese in the United States to go bankrupt.
Pope Francis named Kettler Bishop of St. Cloud on September 20, 2013. He was installed as the ninth bishop of the diocese on November 7, 2013.