Vatican City, Apr 4, 2023 / 05:00 am

Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of Archbishop Michael O. Jackels from the pastoral government of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa.

An April 4 statement from the United States bishops’ conference said Jackels’ resignation was for health reasons.

Bishop Emeritus Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, has been appointed apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, the USCCB communication said.

Jackels, who will turn 69 on April 13, has been archbishop of Dubuque since May 2013. He is scheduled to offer the archdiocese’s Chrism Mass in the Cathedral of St. Raphael in the afternoon on April 4.

The archbishop was hospitalized for a heart attack in early May 2019. He returned to ministry six weeks later with the permission of his cardiologist.

He thanked the people of his archdiocese for their prayers in a message published in the now-closed online publication The Witness.

“The doctor would have me follow a diet and exercise regimen, and learn how to deal appropriately with stress. I am going to need Divine Assistance to carry that out!” he said on June 14, 2019.

“I am humbled by the thoughtfulness and generosity that people have shown me. I will do my best to honor that by making your sacrifices count for something, and to pay it forward.”

Jackels was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, but spent part of his childhood in Wyoming, California, and Madrid, Spain.

He attended junior high and high school in Bellevue, Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before attending seminary and being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln.

Before serving as bishop of Wichita, Kansas, from 2005 to 2013, Jackels spent eight years working in the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.