Bishop appoints Father Stephen W. Jones to be vicar general, effective July 1
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Father Stephen W. Jones asked his wife whether he should accept being appointed the Jefferson City diocese’s new vicar general.
Kerri Jones answered clearly.
“When the Church asks, you serve,” she told him.
“And you’re at that age where if the Church asks, you definitely, definitely serve!” she said.
With that, Fr. Jones, pastor of Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson City, agreed to become the diocese’s seventh vicar general in its nearly 70-year history.
The appointment by Bishop Ralph B. O’Donnell will take effect July 1.
Fr. Jones, 54, will succeed Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki VG, who has served as vicar general since 2018 and by election of the College of Consultors as diocesan administrator for five months in 2025.
“I was very happy and pleased at Bishop O’Donnell’s choice of Fr. Jones as the next vicar general,” said Msgr. Kurwicki, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City.
“I have known him for many years and believe he has the necessary gifts and patience to assume this important office in the life of the diocese,” Msgr. Kurwicki stated. “I wish him every success and happiness.”
The Church’s Code of Canon Law requires the bishop of each diocese to appoint a vicar general to help him with administrative tasks and with the governance of the whole diocese.
The vicar general is second in command to the bishop, serving administratively and liturgically in the bishop’s place when the bishop is sick or away.
The vicar general has executive authority to carry out all duties and responsibilities of a bishop (Canon 479), but may only exercise that authority in concert with the intentions of the bishop and must inform the bishop of any important actions he has taken on the bishop’s behalf (480).
“The vicar general is really the alter ego of the bishop,” said Fr. Jones. “To an extent, his job is to support the bishop, to represent the one who sends him.
“I also see the role in a pastoral way of being a support to the bishop,” Fr. Jones stated, “of being a sounding board for him, being someone who can assist him as he undertakes his apostolic ministry here in this local Church.”
“In God’s hands”
Archbishop Shawn McKnight, who led this diocese from 2018 to 2025, appointed Fr. Jones pastor of the Cathedral Parish in 2023.
Fr. Jones currently also serves as dean of the See City Deanery; a member of the diocesan Presbyteral Council, the diocesan Vocations Committee and the Priests’ Personnel Board; and chairman of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Early Child Care Center Board of Directors.
He holds bachelor’s degrees in history and theology and master’s degrees in divinity and sacred theology.
He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, in a devout Episcopalian family and became aware of his calling to ordained ministry at age 8.
He taught high school biblical theology and coached junior high football while earning a master’s degree in divinity at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He also served as a part-time youth director at an Episcopalian parish.
Ordained an Episcopalian priest in 2001, he served as a curate, chaplain and teacher, then as a pastor in the Fort Worth area.
He was married and had three young children when his growing understanding of Apostolic Succession began drawing him to the Catholic Church.
Apostolic Succession refers to the authority that was given by Christ to St. Peter and handed down to his successors, the popes, as well as the office of bishop being handed down from the Apostles to their successors through the ages.
“I realized that I cannot celebrate Holy Communion outside of unity with the successor of Peter,” Fr. Jones stated.
He and Mrs. Jones decided to become Catholic along with their children in the summer of 2010.
Fr. Jones was confirmed the same day their third child was baptized.
Although Fr. Jones felt called to be Catholic and to be a priest, he did not know whether he’d be able to serve as a priest of the Catholic Church.
“It’s in God’s hands,” he told The Catholic Missourian in 2010. “If it’s not to be, I am content to serve the Lord as a Catholic layman. As it is, I am very grateful to God for leading me here.”
Varied ministries
Bishop John R. Gaydos, now deceased, of Jefferson City hired then-Mr. Jones to serve as diocesan director of youth ministry while determining whether he could be ordained under a special Pastoral Provision approved by Pope St. John Paul II in 1980.
Because of that provision, married clergy from other Christian faith traditions, under certain circumstances, may be ordained Catholic priests while remaining married.
Pope Benedict XVI granted Fr. Jones that permission in the summer of 2012.
Once ordained, Fr. Jones served as a chaplain at Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City and ministered at several parishes, including St. Michael in Russellville, St. Thomas the Apostle in St. Thomas, St. Cecilia in Meta, Our Lady of Snows in Mary’s Home and St. Martin in St. Martins.
He immediately noticed a difference in the workload.
“Catholic priests are asked to do a lot and to be a lot,” he noted. “We’re first and foremost meant to be ministers of the Gospel, ministers of the Sacraments, preaching, governing, teaching and sanctifying ... the Corporal Works of Mercy and the Spiritual Works of Mercy.”
“But, you know, we’re also asked to be mini-CEOs and mini-CFOs and H.R. people and pastoral counselors,” he said. “In a way, I think this great breadth of day-to-day ministry has been part of the Priesthood since ancient times. As St. Paul wrote, ‘I have been all things to all people.’”
Staying on top of it all requires diligence and a deep reservoir of prayer.
“That’s how Christ works day-to-day through me and any other priest,” said Fr. Jones. “The Masses I offer, encountering him in Scripture, in the Daily Office of Readings, in the Psalms that we pray through the Morning, Daytime, Evening and Nighttime Prayer.
“That’s where I find my encounter with Christ,” he said, “as well as in a living, personal relationship with him, which is both informal and formal, because he is the Lord of the Universe.”
Stewards and ’Saders
Fr. Jones served as president of Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City from 2013 to 2020, followed by three years as diocesan director of stewardship.
“Helias Catholic meant running a big institution with a lot of moving parts — parents, students, academics, activities, fund-raising, building, moving the ball forward as an institution,” he said.
A key to success was having a good team of advisors and coworkers.
“If you have that, you can accomplish a lot of great things,” he said.
As diocesan stewardship director, he worked to build up and promote a proper understanding of Catholic stewardship as “sharing in Jesus’s sacrifice, sharing in his radical self-giving, realizing that our gifts are not our own, that they belong to God, and giving back to God in gratitude for what he has given us.”
In his time as stewardship director, he got to visit and offer Mass in almost every parish in the diocese and got to know people from each of the parishes.
That experience will help him integrate a larger view of the Church into his work with the bishop.
“As vicar general, you have your hand on the pulse of the entire diocese,” said Fr. Jones. “You have to know what’s going on everywhere — north, south, east, west. We’ve got a lot of folks all over, and they need to be ministered to, they need to be heard.
“I’m excited to become part of the team that looks at our parishes, reaches out to them and helps them be the best that they can be and serve them in any way that they need,” said Fr. Jones.
Wise counsel
Fr. Jones acknowledged that being present to his family, to his parish and now to the diocese and Chancery staff will be a balancing act.
“It’s just one of those things where you have to have a patient wife, you have to have an understanding wife, you have to have a wife who understands the Catholic faith and the role of the priest and is willing to allow that vocation sometimes to take more time and energy than the vocation of Marriage,” he said.
It usually balances out, but Fr. Jones is under no delusion that it will ever be easy.
“At some point in my Priesthood, I’m going to have to put more emphasis on my vocation to Marriage,” he said. “But right now, we’re just going to juggle and do the best we can.”
Mrs. Jones recently reminded him that every assignment he’d been given outside of parish work in this diocese was something he either hadn’t done before or had little background in.
“You came here as diocesan director of youth ministry, and you learned how to do that,” she told him. “You were appointed president of a Catholic high school and had no background in education administration. You learned how to do it. You had little background in promoting stewardship, but you learned how to do it.
“So, why would anything be different in this role?” she reminded him. “If you go into it with a servant mindset, you can always learn to grow into it.”
Finding a way
Fr. Jones noted that the pastors of Jefferson City’s three Catholic parishes have been meeting regularly and cultivating a greater spirit of cooperation among the parishes.
Likewise, he’s been working with the employees of the Cathedral Parish to be able to carry out their tasks without as much hands-on work from the pastor, “so that I or any other pastor who’s there can focus on doing the things a priest is called to do: the sacramental things, the catechetical things, the pastoral visits and things like that,” he said.
Governance will always be part of the pastor’s duties — Church law requires that.
“But we can delegate some of that to competent laypeople so that the pastor doesn’t have to be involved in every little nook and cranny,” said Fr. Jones.
Sheep grace
The new vicar general has noticed renewed pastoral vigor among the priests of the diocese, “an understanding that we are shepherds of the sheep.”
He’s excited about the recent increase in the number of seminarians for the diocese, and in the number of young people who are interested in and practicing their faith.
“I think we have a really good foundation to grow on and continue the work that has been done by those who have gone before us,” he said.
“And it’s imperative that we do so,” he stated. “With everything going on in the world around us, now is not the time to sit back on our laurels but to really redouble our efforts.”
He’s looking forward to meeting with his three living predecessors: Monsignor Gregory L. Higley, Father Joseph S. Corel and Msgr. Kurwicki.
“I’m grateful to all of them,” said Fr. Jones. “I want to hear about their experiences. I want to hear their advice. I’m a big ‘don’t reinvent the wheel’ kind of guy. I want to benefit from their wisdom.”
Other previous vicars general included: the late Monsignor Michael J. Wilbers, the late Monsignor Gerold J. Kaiser and the late Monsignor Joseph A. Vogelweid P.A.
It shall be opened
Looking back, Fr. Jones recognizes God’s presence at every step of his and his family’s journey to the present — “sometimes very overtly and very starkly, but sometimes very quietly and subtly.
“You can totally see the hand of God guiding me to this place, guiding us to this place,” he said. “The Lord is always faithful. So, I have trust that the Lord will continue to provide.”
Fr. Jones asked for prayers and patience for him and for Bishop O’Donnell as they continue learning their new roles in the diocese.
The new vicar general has found that Christ tends to make his presence more noticeable during times of transition.
“You can recognize the hand of the Lord, knocking on the door,” he said. “And if we open the door, he gives us new opportunities — maybe some we’re not looking for, maybe some we don’t think we can handle.
“But we also know that if he’s the one knocking, the Holy Spirit will be there to strengthen us, guide us, lead us and support us.”
