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Jackels has been living for the past eight years in the cradle of Catholicism, working for the watchdog arm of the Vatican under one of the most powerful men in the church.
That may sound like heady stuff, but Jackels says being named last month as the bishop of Wichita is what’s turned his world upside down.
He’ll be installed April 4, the week after Easter, during a Mass at the Church of the Magdalen.
"I had to buy a miter – the pointy hat – and I was trying to find the right size, and I thought, ‘This looks so strange,’ " Jackels said before packing up his apartment last week at Rome’s Villa Stritch, where American diocesan priests working at the Vatican reside.
Jackels got lost driving back to his hotel from the mall when he was in Wichita in January to be introduced as the new bishop. He’s been here only three times.
He’s been used to strolling the ancient streets of Rome, stopping at haunts such as the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva – built over the ruins of a temple to the Roman goddess of wisdom – to pray at the tomb of his favorite saint, Catherine of Siena.
For the past few weeks, Jackels has been wrapping up his duties at the Vatican, packing, saying goodbye to friends in Rome and picking out the accoutrements he’ll need as a bishop.
His boss for the past eight years was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency that ensures the integrity of Catholic teaching.
After Jackels made his trip to Wichita in January, “I went in to talk with Cardinal Ratzinger. He wanted to know how things went. I said, ‘This is very surreal. It’s like it’s happening to somebody else and not to me.’ And it was consoling because he said he had the exact same experience when he was named bishop of Munich and it was not expected.”
kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/10945735.htm
That may sound like heady stuff, but Jackels says being named last month as the bishop of Wichita is what’s turned his world upside down.
He’ll be installed April 4, the week after Easter, during a Mass at the Church of the Magdalen.
"I had to buy a miter – the pointy hat – and I was trying to find the right size, and I thought, ‘This looks so strange,’ " Jackels said before packing up his apartment last week at Rome’s Villa Stritch, where American diocesan priests working at the Vatican reside.
Jackels got lost driving back to his hotel from the mall when he was in Wichita in January to be introduced as the new bishop. He’s been here only three times.
He’s been used to strolling the ancient streets of Rome, stopping at haunts such as the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva – built over the ruins of a temple to the Roman goddess of wisdom – to pray at the tomb of his favorite saint, Catherine of Siena.
For the past few weeks, Jackels has been wrapping up his duties at the Vatican, packing, saying goodbye to friends in Rome and picking out the accoutrements he’ll need as a bishop.
His boss for the past eight years was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican agency that ensures the integrity of Catholic teaching.
After Jackels made his trip to Wichita in January, “I went in to talk with Cardinal Ratzinger. He wanted to know how things went. I said, ‘This is very surreal. It’s like it’s happening to somebody else and not to me.’ And it was consoling because he said he had the exact same experience when he was named bishop of Munich and it was not expected.”
kansas.com/mld/eagle/living/10945735.htm