Onetime Diocese of Wichita priest, OKC Archbishop Coakley, elected head of U.S. bishops’ conference
A former priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley from the Diocese of Oklahoma City, has been elected president of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Among his other assignments during his time as a priest in the Diocese of Wichita, the new USCCB leader was once an associate pastor of St. Mary parish in Derby, pastor of Wichita’s Church of the Resurrection, director of the Spiritual Life Center in Bel Aire, and Vice Chancellor of the Diocese of Wichita.
“I was delighted when Archbishop Paul Coakley was elected president of the USCCB at our meeting in Baltimore,” Diocese of Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme said. “Having been a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, we can certainly be proud of all Archbishop Coakley has done for the Church in the United States and will continue to do now as president of our Episcopal Conference for the next three years. Please join me in praying for Archbishop Coakley as he undertakes this important and challenging service.”
Along with electing Archbishop Coakley during their meeting in Baltimore this month, U.S. bishops chose Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas., as vice president. Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, was elected secretary.
“I am humbled by the trust which my brother bishops have placed in me by choosing me to serve as president of our episcopal conference,” Archbishop Coakley said in a Facebook post. “When I became a bishop, I chose as my episcopal motto ‘Duc in altum,’ or ‘Put out into the deep.’
“Once again, the Lord is inviting me to put out into deep waters in calling me to accept this service and burden of leadership today,” he continued. “I accept it in faith and with great hope. I ask for the prayers of all the clergy, religious women and men and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.”
Three-Year Term
The USCCB website describes the conference as “an assembly of the hierarchy of bishops who jointly exercise pastoral functions on behalf of the Christian faithful of the United States and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our mission is to support the ministry of bishops with an emphasis on evangelization, by which the bishops exercise in a communal and collegial manner certain pastoral functions entrusted to them by the Lord Jesus of sanctifying, teaching, and governing.”
The president and vice president were elected from a slate of 10 nominees. Archbishop Coakley was elected president 128-109 votes over Bishop Flores in a runoff on the third ballot, USCCB says. In the vote for vice president, Bishop Flores was elected vice president on the first ballot from the remaining nine candidates. Both bishops assumed their respective new offices for a three-year term after adjourning the plenary assembly.
Previously, Archbishop Coakley served as conference secretary, a position he held since 2022 when he was elected to complete the term left vacant when Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who had been serving as conference secretary, was elected as president. Archbishop Coakley was then re-elected to serve a full term as conference secretary, though he now passes that position to Bishop Rhoades.
An Archbishop’s Biography
Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, S.T.L., D.D. was born to John and Mary Coakley in Norfolk, Virgina, in 1955 and lived there with his father, mother, and older brother, John, until he was two. The family relocated to Metairie, Louisiana, where his sister, Mary Christina, was born. After beginning his elementary education at St. Mary Magdalen Catholic School, the family moved in 1965 to Overland Park. Archbishop Coakley’s secondary education was completed in public schools in Overland Park.
After graduation from high school, he attended the University of Kansas where he completed his undergraduate studies in English and Classical Antiquities in 1977. During this period, he was a student in KU’s Integrated Humanities Program, where he studied under John Senior, Dennis Quinn, and Frank Nelick.
Upon completing university studies, Archbishop Coakley traveled in Europe and briefly considered a monastic vocation at the Abbey of Notre Dame de Fontgombault in France, before returning to begin seminary studies for the Diocese of Wichita in 1978.
He was ordained a priest by Bishop Eugene Gerber on May 21, 1983 at Wichita’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
His assignments for the Diocese of Wichita were:
• Chaplain, St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Wichita;
• Associate pastor, St. Mary’s Church, Derby;
• Chaplain, Kansas Newman College, Wichita;
• Director, Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry, Diocese of Wichita;
• Pastor, Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Wichita;
• Associate director, Spiritual Life Center, Bel Aire;
• Associate pastor (part time), St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Wichita;
• Pastor, Church of the Resurrection, Wichita;
• Director, spiritual formation, Mount St. Mary’s Seminary, Emmitsburg, Maryland;
• Director, Spiritual Life Center, Bel Aire;
• Vice Chancellor, Diocese of Wichita, January 2004-December 2004; and
• Administrator, Church of the Magdalen, Wichita.
After serving as a priest of the Diocese of Wichita for 21 years, he was appointed Bishop of Salina by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 21, 2004. On Dec. 16, 2010, Bishop Coakley was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the fourth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.”
