KDSN RADIO News
New Bishop named for Sioux City Catholic Diocese
Pope Francis has accepted the retirement request for Sioux City Catholic Diocese Bishop Walter Nickless. Bishop Nickless has served Sioux City since 2006 and says he submitted his request for retirement in May of 2022 as is required when you turn 75.
Bishop Nickless. (KSCJ photo)
He joked today about not getting approval until recently. “I was at Bishop Helen High School on January 28 in the midst of Catholic Schools Week. And I told the students that were there I think the Holy Father has forgotten me. I was 75 two years ago,” he says. “I came back after that, and there was a call waiting from the nuncio in Washington, the one who makes the appointments.” The Pope also appointed 59-year-old Father John Keehner of the Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio to take over in Sioux City on May 1st.
Keehner described the call to come to Sioux City. )” The person on the other line identified himself as Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the U-S. And he asked if I was alone. And when I said yes, he began telling me that the Holy Father, Pope Francis, had appointed me the Eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa,” he says. “And I remember asking, Is this a joke? I thought I was being pranked. His Eminence laughed. I’m guessing that this is not the first time someone has asked him that question. He reassured me that it was not in set and simply said, didn’t ask you will accept. Yes.”
Bishop Nickless says he called Keehner shortly after learning he would be his replacement. “He has a sense of humor, he’s humble, he’s willing to serve. I promised him my support and the help that he will go through where the transition and we are very blessed. Bishop-elect Keehner is blessed as well because he inherits a Greek diocese, the priests and the people of the Diocese will soon see a man of the greatest quality,” Nickless says.
Father Keehner did not grow up a Catholic but earned a B.A. in English in 1988 from the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He began his studies at Mount St. Mary Seminary of the West in Cincinnati and was ordained a priest in 1993. “I’m the product of public school education, but I’m truly grateful for my experiences of working with parishes, with schools which taught me far more than I could ever have taught them,” he says. “I’m grateful for my experiences of working with young adults as Newman Center chaplain for Youngstown State University, for the time I spent working with the Department of Canonical Services, and for the very good men and women who taught me what it means to serve with love and patience those whose hearts were broken and in need of healing.”
There are 24 counties in the Sioux City Diocese in northwest Iowa with some 84-thousand parishioners, 37 parishes, and 36 priests in active ministry. There are 15 Catholic schools in the Diocese.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)
