Pope Francis has appointed Belleville Bishop Michael McGovern as the sixth archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska, according to announcements by McGovern and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Monday.
“I accept his nomination with gratitude and humility and thank him for the confidence he has placed in me,” McGovern said in a statement.
The pope has accepted the resignation of Omaha Archbishop George Lucas.
McGovern said his installation as archbishop will be May 7 at the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha.
McGovern, who said he heard from the pope “very recently” about his Omaha appointment, became the ninth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville in 2020.
Pope Francis is recovering from double-pneumonia and McGovern asked for followers to pray for the pope’s health.
“I am very grateful to the clergy and faithful of southern Illinois for their support and the many ways they have shared their faith with me over the past five years,” McGovern said in his statement. “I hope that the work we have done together in the Belleville Diocese will yield an increase in the active participation of Catholic faithful and an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life.”
Before he was appointed bishop in Belleville, McGovern spent most of his time as a priest in a largely rural area in northern Illinois. He served as pastor at the Church of St. Mary in Lake Forest, about 30 miles north of Chicago, from 2004 to 2016 and St. Raphael the Archangel Catholic Church in Old Mill Creek, a small town near the Wisconsin border, from 2016 until 2020.
McGovern grew up on the south side of Chicago with seven brothers and sisters. He was ordained a priest in 1994 in the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.
In Belleville, McGovern replaced Bishop Edward K. Braxton, who retired after serving 15 years in Belleville.
Neither the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops nor McGovern indicated in their statements when a replacement will be named for McGovern in Belleville.
Lucas is 75, which is the age that Catholic bishops are asked to submit their resignation to the pope.
Last year, Lucas was named in a St. Louis County lawsuit alleging he sexually abused two seminary students in St. Louis and Lucas released a statement saying “I categorically deny the accusation made by an anonymous person. I have never had sexual contact with another person,” according to a report by the National Catholic Register.
Lucas, who was born in St. Louis, previously served in Springfield, Illinois, where he was installed as bishop in 1999. He was installed as archbishop of Omaha in 2009, according to the Archdiocese of Omaha.
