Donald Joseph Kettler

Styles of Donald Kettler
Reference style	The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Monsignor
Posthumous style	not applicable

Donald Joseph Kettler (born November 26, 1944) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He is the eighth and current Bishop of Fairbanks, and the fourth since the creation of the Fairbanks diocese in 1962.

Biography

Donald Kettler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Joseph and Marguerite Kettler. His family later moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where Kettler and his three siblings (Jim, Beth, and Kathleen) were raised. He studied at St. John University and Seminary in Collegeville before being ordained to the priesthood on May 29, 1970.

Kettler then served as an associate pastor in Aberdeen and Sioux Falls until 1979, whence he began coordinating work for the diocesan offices of Sioux Falls. In 1981, he entered the Catholic University of America, from where he obtained his licentiate in canon law. Kettler was named judicial vicar of Sioux Falls in 1983, and resumed his work coordinating its diocesan offices from 1984 to 1987. During this time, he also began celebrating a weekly televised Mass.

After serving as rector of St. Joseph's Cathedral from 1987 to 1995, he was pastor of St. Lambert Parish from 1995 to 2000, and of Christ the King Parish from 2000 to 2002. Kettler was also a member of the Sioux Falls Diocesan Finance Council, Stewardship Committee, Catholic Family Services's Board of Directors the Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota's Board of Directors, and a Board Member of the Sioux Falls Catholic School System.

On June 7, 2002, Kettler was appointed the eighth Bishop of Fairbanks, Alaska, by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on the following August 22 from Archbishop Roger Schwietz, OMI, with Bishops Michael Warfel and Robert Carlson serving as co-consecrators. He is the first diocesan priest and non-Jesuit to head the diocese.

After a public announcement three weeks earlier,^[1] Bishop Kettler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, following unsuccessful negotiations to settle dozens of sexual abuse claims, on March 1, 2008. The Diocese of Fairbanks thus became the sixth diocese in the United States to go bankrupt.^[2]

References

1. ^ Catholic News Agency. Diocese of Fairbanks to file for bankruptcy February 15, 2008
2. ^ Whispers in the Loggia. Bankrupt March 4, 2008

External links

• Catholic-Hierarchy
• Diocese of Fairbanks
• USCCB Office of Media Relations

Preceded by Michael Joseph Kaniecki, SJ

Bishop of Fairbanks 2002–present

Succeeded by incumbent

Persondata
Name	Kettler, Donald Joseph
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 26, 1944
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death