Daniel R. Jenky

Daniel Jenky was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended St. Laurence High School, under the direction of the Irish Christian Brothers. He entered the University of Notre Dame in 1965, and the novitiate of the Congregation of Holy Cross at Bennington, Vermont in 1966. In 1970, Jenky obtained bachelor's degree in history. He made his profession as member of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1973, the same year in which he earned his Master of Theology degree and received his diaconate.[1]

Jenky was ordained to the priesthood on April 6, 1974. He then taught social studies and religion at Bourgade Catholic High School in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1975, he returned to his alma mater of Notre Dame and was Rector of Dillon Hall, Director of Campus Ministry, and Rector of Sacred Heart Church (which would later become a basilica under his tenure), teaching courses as well. In 1985, he became Superior of the Holy Cross priests and brothers at Notre Dame.

On October 21, 1997, Jenky was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend and Titular Bishop of Amantia by Pope John Paul II.[1] He received his episcopal consecration on the following December 16 from Bishop John M. D'Arcy, with Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan and Archbishop Charles Asa Schleck, CSC, serving as co-consecrators.[2] Jenky was assigned as rector of St. Matthew’s Cathedral and pastor of the parish.[1]

Pope John Paul II appointed Jenky Bishop of Peoria on February 12, 2002,[3] and he was installed on April 10 of that year at St. Mary's Cathedral in Peoria. Bishop Jenky has introduced the cause for the canonization of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, a native of Peoria.[1]

In an April 2012 men's march homily, Jenky, to the applause of the attendees, included the Obama Administration’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on a list of things the Catholic Church has survived including the early persecution of Christians, barbarian invasions, "wave after wave of Jihads", the "Age of Revolution", Nazism, and Communism. He continued, "…the Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his bureaucrats and HHS, and the majority in today’s Federal senate."[4][5][6]

More than 90 faculty members at the University of Notre Dame, where he served as Director of Campus Ministry and Rector of the Basilica of Notre Dame before he became Auxiliary Bishop, and where he sits on the 12-member University of Notre Dame Board of Fellows, signed a letter to the University President, the Rev. John I. Jenkins, CSC, and the Chairman of Notre Dame's Board of Trustees, asking that the Bishop renounce his remarks, which they described as insensitive and as too political in tone, or resign from the Board of Fellows, though they acknowledged his constitutional right to freedom of expression. The local chapters of the NAACP, the ACLU, and the Anti-Defamation League also demanded an apology, and there were calls to have the IRS investigate the Bishop because the Diocese, as a tax-exempt, non-profit private entity, is supposed to refrain from overly political comments. Rabbi Daniel Bogard of Peoria's Anshai Emeth Congregation said that Jenky was engaging in demagoguery and using the Holocaust "as a partisan political ploy that trivializes the memory of 13 million innocents killed."[7] Diocesan officials, including a Vicar General, Monsignor James E. Kruse, and the Chancellor, Patricia Gibson, said that the analogy was meant to point out that the U.S. is starting to suffer an erosion of religious freedom and of the freedom of expression, particularly for Christians.

As the bishop of Peoria, he led the canonization cause of Fulton Sheen. He announced that he would not permit the cause to go forward until the body of Archbishop Sheen was removed to Peoria from St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.[8][9] This led to a 3 year litigation against the Archdiocese of New York which ended in June 2019 with the body being moved to Peoria.[10]