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Pope appoints bishop for Iowa diocese, names San Diego auxiliary

Catholic News Service
April 19, 2017

http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2017/pope-appoints-bishop-for-iowa-diocese-names-san-diego-auxiliary.cfm

Pope Francis has named Msgr. Thomas R. Zinkula, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, to be bishop of Davenport. Bishop-designate Zinkula, pictured in an April 19 photo, succeeds retiring Bishop Martin J. Amos, who is 75.

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Bishop Martin J. Amos of Davenport, Iowa, and named as his successor Msgr. Thomas R. Zinkula, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, who is currently rector of St. Pius X Seminary at Loras College in Dubuque.

The pope also named Father John P. Dolan as an auxiliary bishop of San Diego. He is episcopal vicar for clergy in the diocese and a parish pastor.

The appointments were announced April 19 in Washington by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

Bishop Amos is 75, the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation to the pope. He has headed the Davenport Diocese since 2006.

He said that since last December when he turned 75 and offered his resignation to Pope Francis, "we have prayed a diocesan prayer awaiting a new bishop. In part, it prayed for 'a pastor who will please you by his holiness and will show us your watchful care.'"

"It is with joy and great pleasure that I introduce to you the answer to our prayers," Bishop Amos said in a statement about Bishop-designate Zinkula.

The newly named bishop, an Iowa native who was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Dubuque May 26, 1990, turned 60 the day of his episcopal appointment as the ninth bishop of Davenport. He has been rector of St. Pius X Seminary at Loras College since 2014.

The episcopal ordination and installation Mass for Bishop-designate Zinkula will be celebrated June 22 at St. John Vianney Church in Bettendorf, Iowa. Until then, Bishop Amos will serve as apostolic administrator of the diocese.

The Diocese of Davenport covers more than 11,400 square miles. Out of a total population of over 792,000, about 97,000 people, or 12 percent, are Catholic.

Bishop-designate Dolan, who turns 55 June 8, is pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish in San Diego. He will serve as an auxiliary to San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy. The 8,850-square-mile diocese in Southern California has a Catholic population of over 1 million. Catholics make up 30 percent of the total population of close to 3.3 million.

Bishop-designate Zinkula was born April 19, 1957, in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, where he earned a master's degree in theology in 1990. In 1998, he received a licentiate in canon law from St. Paul's University in Ottawa, Ontario. He also earned a law degree from the University of Iowa in 1983, and he holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics, economics and business from Cornell College in Mount Vernon.

After his priestly ordination, he had several pastoral assignments in the Dubuque Archdiocese, including as assistant pastor and as pastor, as well as sacramental priest for a couple of parishes. He served as a judge at the archdiocesan tribunal, 1998-2000, and judicial vicar, 2000-2010. He was pastor of Holy Ghost Parish in Dubuque, 2005-2011, then episcopal vicar for the archdiocese's Cedar Rapids region, 2012-2014.

Bishop Amos, a native of Cleveland, was ordained a priest for the Cleveland Diocese May 25, 1968. He was an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland from 2001 to 2006, when he was named the eighth bishop of Davenport.

Bishop-designate Dolan was born in San Diego June 8, 1962, and was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of San Diego July 1, 1989.

He has a master of arts degree in liturgy from St. Patrick's Seminary in Menlo Park, California.

After his priestly ordination, his first pastoral assignment was as parochial vicar of St. Michael's Parish in San Diego. He has several pastoral assignments around the diocese. He was director of vocations from 1992 to 1994. He has been episcopal vicar for the clergy and pastor and pastor of St. John the Evangelist Parish since 2016.

 




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