Bishop-elect Ralph O’Donnell stands next to a frame where his bishop’s portrait will go once he’s ordained and installed in the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri. The photo was taken on Aug. 19 – following the news of his appointment – at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City. COURTESY PHOTO

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Bishop-elect O’Donnell brings a bit of Nebraska to his Missouri diocese

August 21, 2025

by Catholic Voice

This fall, Bishop-elect Ralph O’Donnell will pack up and move to his new home in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Among his belongings will likely be clothes, books, furniture and other items. Less tangibly, though, he’ll bring with him a remnant of the Archdiocese of Omaha, where he was born, raised and formed in the Catholic faith.

“This is my home now,” he told his new flock at an Aug. 19 press conference at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City. But even in that initial introduction, Bishop-elect O’Donnell began unpacking how his native archdiocese has influenced him.

He mentioned the support he’s received from Archbishop Michael G. McGovern and “all those who have helped shape me,” including “my uncle (the late) Msgr. Edward O’Donnell who baptized me, (the late) Archbishop Daniel E. Sheehan who confirmed me, Archbishop Emeritus Elden Francis Curtiss who ordained me and Archbishop Emeritus George Lucas, who in his goodness allowed me to be in service in so many ways.”

Bishop-elect O’Donnell thanked, too, his family and the people of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Omaha, “who have been so good to me.”

He even managed to bring up something utterly Nebraskan – the Cornhuskers. The Missouri cornfields he saw on the way to Jefferson City reminded him.

“I’m talking to the priest from Omaha who drove me down and I’m saying … ‘Wait a minute, look, there’s corn,'” he said at the press conference. “And I thought, all right. I felt like I can talk Cornhuskers here, too.”

Bishop-elect O’Donnell speaks at an Aug. 19 press conference at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City. DIOCESE OF JEFFERSON CITY

His Nebraska past will help him, he said, as he reaches out to the 38-county expanse of his new diocese. As a former archdiocese vocations director, he traveled to every parish in northeast Nebraska.

“I can say I was in every church in my archdiocese and I got to meet every community because of that work,” the bishop-elect said. He said he’s excited for a similar opportunity in Missouri and he’s ready for lots of car travel.

“I just think it’s going to be great to be here,” he said. “I know it’s going to be challenging, but it’ll pan out.”

As the fifth bishop of the Jefferson City diocese, Bishop-elect O’Donnell will serve in a 22,127-square-mile area of central Missouri. The diocese has a general population of nearly 927,000, of which nearly 75,000 are Catholic.

He will be ordained and installed in his new diocese on Oct. 28.

In the meantime, he will continue to serve as pastor of St. Margaret Mary and plan for his new role.

The 55-year-old was appointed a bishop about three months after the previous bishop of Jefferson City – now Archbishop Shawn McKnight – was installed as leader of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas.

“I’m grateful to the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for this appointment,” Bishop-elect O’Donnell said in a press release ahead of the news conference. “I look forward to coming to know and to serve the people of the Diocese of Jefferson City with joy. Let us pray for one another in the days ahead.”

Archbishop Michael G. McGovern said he is thankful for Bishop-elect O’Donnell’s service to the Archdiocese of Omaha and commends him, his family and the people of the Diocese of Jefferson City and the Omaha archdiocese to God in prayer during the transition.

“Bishop-elect O’Donnell is a wonderful priest of the Archdiocese of Omaha,” Archbishop McGovern said in a press release from the Jefferson City diocese. “He is a proven pastor with a great heart for the people he serves. His current responsibilities include serving as a pastor of a very large and vibrant parish, along with being a board member of Catholic Charities.

“The Lord has blessed Bishop-elect O’Donnell with many gifts,” Archbishop McGovern said, “that he will continue to use for the Lord and the mission of the Church in Jefferson City. While I will miss him personally, I trust that the Lord will bless him in his new ministry as the bishop of Jefferson City.”

The bishop-elect’s predecessor, Archbishop McKnight, said he is confident that the people of his former diocese “are in excellent hands with Bishop-elect O’Donnell.”

“I pray that God’s providence will guide and bless him abundantly in the days ahead, and I look forward to joining the people of the Diocese of Jefferson City in celebrating his installation. Please join me in praying for Bishop-elect O’Donnell and the Diocese of Jefferson City during this time of joyful transition.”

DIOCESE OF JEFFERSON CITY

The new prelate was born Aug. 31, 1969, in Omaha. He grew up in Our Lady of Lourdes Parish and near Holy Cross Parish, where his uncle, Msgr. O’Donnell, had served for years as pastor.

Bishop-elect O’Donnell studied at Conception Seminary College in Conception, Missouri, from 1989-1993, and Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois, from 1993-1997.

He was ordained in 1997.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in religion from Conception and his master of divinity degree from the University of Saint Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Bishop-elect O’Donnell went on to earn a master’s degree in Christian spirituality from Creighton University in Omaha in 2000.

His assignments as priest include associate pastor, Mary Our Queen Parish in Omaha (1997-2001); associate pastor, Saint Vincent de Paul Parish in Omaha (2001-2003); director of vocations for the Archdiocese of Omaha (2003-2008); pastor, Saint Bridget Parish and Saint Rose Parish in Omaha (2008-2011); director of the permanent diaconate for the Archdiocese of Omaha (2008-2009); vice rector and dean of formation at Conception Seminary College in Conception (2011-2015); and executive director for the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (2015-2019). Since 2019, he has served as pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Omaha.

Bishop-elect O’Donnell is the latest Archdiocese of Omaha priest to be elevated to bishop.

Bishop Joseph G. Hanefeldt of the Diocese of Grand Island had been the most recent, appointed by Pope Francis in 2015.

Other priests of the archdiocese who went on to become bishops include Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of Archdiocese of Chicago, who in 1998 was appointed Bishop of Rapid City, South Dakota, by Pope St. John Paul II; Bishop Emeritus William J. Dendinger of Grand Island diocese, who was appointed to the diocese in 2004 by Pope St. John Paul II; and the late Bishop Anthony M. Milone, who was appointed by Pope St. John Paul II in 1981 as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Omaha before becoming bishop of the Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, Montana, in 1988.

Going way back, Bishop Patrick Aloysius Alphonsus McGovern – who was ordained a priest in 1895 – was appointed by Pope St. Pius X in 1912 to be bishop of the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Bishop-elect O’Donnell probably hasn’t looked to the past as much as he has pondered the future.

He told the people of the Diocese of Jefferson City that he’s eager “to know the Lord more deeply with you.”

“I look so forward to the days ahead,” he said. “Please continue to pray for me, and I will pray for you.”