On January 28, 2005, the late Pope John Paul II announced the appointment of Reverend Monsignor Michael Owen Jackels (Jake-els) as the tenth Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wichita.  He was ordained at the Church of the Magdalen, Wichita on April, 4 in the presence of approximately 20 visiting bishops, 250 priests, and 2,500 faithful.

Ordained to the priesthood on May 31, 1981 in the Diocese of Lincoln, Neb., Bishop Jackels served the Diocese of Lincoln in a variety of pastoral assignments: assistant pastor at the Cathedral and Newman Center on the University of Nebraska campus; assistant vocation director; high school religion teacher; director of Hispanic Ministry; diocesan master of ceremonies; diocesan director of religious education; and co-Vicar for religious.

Bishop Jackels has spent more than half his priesthood in Rome, four years working towards a doctorate in spiritual theology and most recently, eight years working in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Jackels was born April 13, 1954 in Rapid City, S.D. to Kenneth Jackels and Ramona Mettler, the third of their six children.  He received a bachelor of arts degree in philosophy in 1977 from St. Pius X Seminary in Erlanger, Ken., and holds a master of arts in theology from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., and a doctorate in sacred theology from Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome.

Find out more about Bishop Jackels, visit The Catholic Diocese of Wichita.