Crossing paths with those who went before him

And I had the privilege of working for and with Archbishop McKnight. And so, following him now, I know so much about the quality and the integrity of his service.”

Bishop-elect Ralph B. O’Donnell

Through the years, Bishop-elect Ralph B. O’Donnell had the opportunity to meet and interact with three of the four previous bishops of this diocese.

“When I was a seminarian at Conception Seminary College, I served a term as president of the student council,” he recalled. “And as part of the work of the president I was allowed to sit in with the Board of Regents.”

One of the board members during that year was Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe, now deceased, who led the Jefferson City diocese from 1969-97.

“I remember him coming to visit his seminarians at Conception when I was a student,” said Bishop-elect O’Donnell. “I can still hear his gentlemanly voice.”

Years later, as vice rector at Conception Seminary, the bishop-elect would come to Jefferson City along with the seminary rector each summer to visit Bishop John R. Gaydos, now deceased, who led the diocese from 1997-2018.

“You talk about joy and a servant’s heart! That is what he had,” said Bishop-elect O’Donnell. “I got to know him as the teacher and shepherd of the Jefferson City diocese, while working in formation work, assisting future priests, some of whom are priests of the diocese now.”

In both cases, the bishop-elect had no idea that he would one day be a successor to Bishop McAuliffe and Bishop Gaydos “and working to care for the souls and the families that were under their care, after they went to meet God, having carried out that responsibility.”

Bishop-elect O’Donnell first got to know Archbishop Shawn McKnight of Kansas City in Kansas, who led the Jefferson City diocese from 2018 until May of this year, when serving as vocation director for the Archdiocese of Omaha, while Archbishop McKnight was dean of students and vice rector at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio.

Their paths crossed again in Washington, D.C., when Archbishop McKnight was finishing up his term as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.

The secretariat serves the USCCB standing committee of the same name, which helps the bishops in promoting, supporting and educating about the Church’s pastoral needs and concerns for the Priesthood, Diaconate and Consecrated Life.

Bishop-elect O’Donnell was appointed to serve for six months as associate director of the secretariat, then to succeed Archbishop McKnight as executive director.

“And I had the privilege of working for and with Archbishop McKnight,” said Bishop-elect O’Donnell. “And so, following him now, I know so much about the quality and the integrity of his service.”

Bishop Gaydos, who had moved into assisted living at St. Agnes Home in St. Louis and was very sick, called Bishop-elect O’Donnell at about 10 p.m. the evening before the new bishop’s appointment was announced.

“He spoke with incredible love and enthusiasm about this diocese,” Bishop-elect O’Donnell recalled in his homily at a prayer vigil the evening before Bishop Gaydos’s Funeral Mass.

The retired bishop told him, “Thank you for saying yes! They’re beautiful people. You’ll have great priests. Thank you!”