A version of this story originally appeared in the Fall 2026 edition of The True Voice magazine. Copies of the magazine can be found at parishes across the archdiocese.
A message to the Archdiocese of Omaha from Most Reverend Ralph B. O’Donnell, Bishop of Jefferson City:
Almost a year after leaving the parish he loved in Omaha to become the fifth Bishop of Jefferson City, Ralph B. O’Donnell says the biggest surprise of his new ministry is how familiar it all feels.
“You come to a four-way stop on a county road, and there are two other cars there,” Bishop O’Donnell said. “You don’t know who the drivers are, but somehow you know them.” It’s the kind of small-town instinct he grew up with in Nebraska, and one he didn’t expect to find waiting for him more than 400 miles away, in the rolling, wooded hills of mid-Missouri. “There are a lot more hills here than in Nebraska, and the roads are winding — and beautiful.”
He still remembers the moment that set all of this in motion: a phone call from the apostolic nuncio, telling him Pope Leo XIV had chosen him to lead the Diocese of Jefferson City. “It seemed to almost be in slow motion,” he recalled. “When he said ‘Jefferson City,’ I said out loud, ‘Missouri!’ And he said, ‘You know it?'” He did — from years spent as a vice rector at the seminary, where he’d visited Jefferson City’s bishop and taught seminarians from the diocese he now leads.
Twenty years of ministry, one continuous thread
Bishop O’Donnell says his years of service in the Archdiocese of Omaha — as a vocation director, as director of the permanent diaconate, as a parish pastor and as an administrator with the U.S. Bishops’ Conference — turned out to be fitting preparation for the office he holds today.
“Each of those roles gave me the opportunity to work with diverse teams, and I’ve been so encouraged by the quality of the people I work with and minister alongside here in the diocese of Jefferson City,” he said. What has struck him most, though, isn’t a difference between the two places, but a constant that traveled with him. “When you’re a disciple of the Lord and following Him, the constants stay the same. There are variables in where you live and in the demographics, but the reality of seeing Christ in others — and trying to be Christ for others — is quite universal.”
A lesson from Rome
Before his installation, Bishop O’Donnell joined 192 other bishops from around the world at the New Bishops’ School in Rome — long days of lectures, delivered in a variety of languages, that he followed as best he could through translated texts. But the moment that stayed with him most was an address from Pope Leo XIV himself.
“He spoke to us in English, and it was beautiful to watch,” Bishop O’Donnell said. “When bishops asked him questions in Spanish, Italian or English, he answered each one in the language it was asked.” The Holy Father told the new bishops he understood the uncertainty many of them felt stepping into unfamiliar responsibility, having faced similar feelings himself not long before as a new Pope. He reminded them that no single bishop possesses every gift the office requires — but that together, in faith, the body of bishops through the Holy Spirit lacks nothing it needs. “He told us to always work in union with one another, and with him,” Bishop O’Donnell said. “It’s probably the best lesson I carry from that time.”
Serving the Lord with gladness
Ask Bishop O’Donnell about his episcopal motto, and the answer starts in childhood. “I’ve been told that even as a child I was a joyful person — I’d wake up ready, with enthusiasm,” he said. That disposition eventually became the foundation of his motto, drawn from Psalm 100: Serve the Lord with gladness.
Bishop Ralph O’Donnell attends a groundbreaking ceremony in the Diocese of Jefferson City. COURTESY PHOTO
“I’ve come to recognize joy, not just as something that motivates me, but as a sign of the Spirit,” he said. It is not, he’s quick to add, a naive optimism that ignores hardship. “Discipleship costs us at times; it cost the Lord as he offered his own life in following the will of the Father. Yet that joy is tied to the freedom of doing God’s will — knowing that what we do is out of love for God and doing it with a gladness that’s confident in His ultimate care for us.” When that joy fades, he treats it as a signal rather than a setback: a prompt to pause, name whatever doubt or darkness has crept in, and ask the Lord to meet it with light. “That joy should compel us — indeed motivate us — to serve the Lord, to joyfully seek what can be done for the glory of God the Father, just as
He did.”
That same deepening of faith, he says, is the quiet grace of the past nine months. “That initial ‘yes’ of our vocation deepens as we age and as our responsibilities grow. Within each ‘yes,’ we draw closer to Him and become more dependent on His grace. It’s helping me see Him more clearly —in the work before me, in the faces of the people I encounter, and in the good work we’re doing together as a diocese. It’s humbling.”
Looking ahead with hope
Bishop O’Donnell arrived in Jefferson City to find a diocese already deep in living out their diocesan pastoral plan, now entering its in third and final year. Watching as that plan comes to fruition, he says, is the clearest source of hope he has for the road ahead.
“It’s been wonderful to watch, over these past months, as parish plans have been collected,” he said. Through what he calls “a beautiful use of synodality”— parishes praying, talking and discerning together — the diocese has distilled its shared work into six themes that will guide the diocese’s work in the future. “What our communities have discovered, what we’ve come to see as a diocese in these six themes, will now be met through the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the same energy and commitment shown by everyone who brought us to this point,” he said. “It’s a chance to gather, to hear the Lord and to let Him guide us to see and recognize Him in one another, grow as disciples and then take that on mission to share with our brothers and sisters throughout all 38 counties of our diocese.”
For a priest who left one home to be ordained Bishop and lead in another, clearly the Lord calls him to answer— with more rolling hills along the way.
Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish, was ordained and installed as the fifth Bishop of Jefferson City on October 28, 2025. This piece was prepared from his recorded remarks for the Archdiocese of Omaha.
The Most Rev. Ralph O’Donnell
Commentary
Reflections: Bishop O’Donnell reflects on his first year in Jefferson City
November 6, 2026
A version of this story originally appeared in the Fall 2026 edition of The True Voice magazine. Copies of the magazine can be found at parishes across the archdiocese.
A message to the Archdiocese of Omaha from Most Reverend Ralph B. O’Donnell, Bishop of Jefferson City:
Almost a year after leaving the parish he loved in Omaha to become the fifth Bishop of Jefferson City, Ralph B. O’Donnell says the biggest surprise of his new ministry is how familiar it all feels.
“You come to a four-way stop on a county road, and there are two other cars there,” Bishop O’Donnell said. “You don’t know who the drivers are, but somehow you know them.” It’s the kind of small-town instinct he grew up with in Nebraska, and one he didn’t expect to find waiting for him more than 400 miles away, in the rolling, wooded hills of mid-Missouri. “There are a lot more hills here than in Nebraska, and the roads are winding — and beautiful.”
He still remembers the moment that set all of this in motion: a phone call from the apostolic nuncio, telling him Pope Leo XIV had chosen him to lead the Diocese of Jefferson City. “It seemed to almost be in slow motion,” he recalled. “When he said ‘Jefferson City,’ I said out loud, ‘Missouri!’ And he said, ‘You know it?'” He did — from years spent as a vice rector at the seminary, where he’d visited Jefferson City’s bishop and taught seminarians from the diocese he now leads.
Twenty years of ministry, one continuous thread
Bishop O’Donnell says his years of service in the Archdiocese of Omaha — as a vocation director, as director of the permanent diaconate, as a parish pastor and as an administrator with the U.S. Bishops’ Conference — turned out to be fitting preparation for the office he holds today.
“Each of those roles gave me the opportunity to work with diverse teams, and I’ve been so encouraged by the quality of the people I work with and minister alongside here in the diocese of Jefferson City,” he said. What has struck him most, though, isn’t a difference between the two places, but a constant that traveled with him. “When you’re a disciple of the Lord and following Him, the constants stay the same. There are variables in where you live and in the demographics, but the reality of seeing Christ in others — and trying to be Christ for others — is quite universal.”
A lesson from Rome
Before his installation, Bishop O’Donnell joined 192 other bishops from around the world at the New Bishops’ School in Rome — long days of lectures, delivered in a variety of languages, that he followed as best he could through translated texts. But the moment that stayed with him most was an address from Pope Leo XIV himself.
“He spoke to us in English, and it was beautiful to watch,” Bishop O’Donnell said. “When bishops asked him questions in Spanish, Italian or English, he answered each one in the language it was asked.” The Holy Father told the new bishops he understood the uncertainty many of them felt stepping into unfamiliar responsibility, having faced similar feelings himself not long before as a new Pope. He reminded them that no single bishop possesses every gift the office requires — but that together, in faith, the body of bishops through the Holy Spirit lacks nothing it needs. “He told us to always work in union with one another, and with him,” Bishop O’Donnell said. “It’s probably the best lesson I carry from that time.”
Serving the Lord with gladness
Ask Bishop O’Donnell about his episcopal motto, and the answer starts in childhood. “I’ve been told that even as a child I was a joyful person — I’d wake up ready, with enthusiasm,” he said. That disposition eventually became the foundation of his motto, drawn from Psalm 100: Serve the Lord with gladness.
Bishop Ralph O’Donnell attends a groundbreaking ceremony in the Diocese of Jefferson City. COURTESY PHOTO
“I’ve come to recognize joy, not just as something that motivates me, but as a sign of the Spirit,” he said. It is not, he’s quick to add, a naive optimism that ignores hardship. “Discipleship costs us at times; it cost the Lord as he offered his own life in following the will of the Father. Yet that joy is tied to the freedom of doing God’s will — knowing that what we do is out of love for God and doing it with a gladness that’s confident in His ultimate care for us.” When that joy fades, he treats it as a signal rather than a setback: a prompt to pause, name whatever doubt or darkness has crept in, and ask the Lord to meet it with light. “That joy should compel us — indeed motivate us — to serve the Lord, to joyfully seek what can be done for the glory of God the Father, just as
He did.”
That same deepening of faith, he says, is the quiet grace of the past nine months. “That initial ‘yes’ of our vocation deepens as we age and as our responsibilities grow. Within each ‘yes,’ we draw closer to Him and become more dependent on His grace. It’s helping me see Him more clearly —in the work before me, in the faces of the people I encounter, and in the good work we’re doing together as a diocese. It’s humbling.”
Looking ahead with hope
Bishop O’Donnell arrived in Jefferson City to find a diocese already deep in living out their diocesan pastoral plan, now entering its in third and final year. Watching as that plan comes to fruition, he says, is the clearest source of hope he has for the road ahead.
“It’s been wonderful to watch, over these past months, as parish plans have been collected,” he said. Through what he calls “a beautiful use of synodality”— parishes praying, talking and discerning together — the diocese has distilled its shared work into six themes that will guide the diocese’s work in the future. “What our communities have discovered, what we’ve come to see as a diocese in these six themes, will now be met through the grace of the Holy Spirit, with the same energy and commitment shown by everyone who brought us to this point,” he said. “It’s a chance to gather, to hear the Lord and to let Him guide us to see and recognize Him in one another, grow as disciples and then take that on mission to share with our brothers and sisters throughout all 38 counties of our diocese.”
For a priest who left one home to be ordained Bishop and lead in another, clearly the Lord calls him to answer— with more rolling hills along the way.
Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell, a priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha and former pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish, was ordained and installed as the fifth Bishop of Jefferson City on October 28, 2025. This piece was prepared from his recorded remarks for the Archdiocese of Omaha.