Wichita native named archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas
During the April 8 press conference introducing him as the next archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, Bishop Shawn McKnight expressed satisfaction that he would soon return to The Sunflower State. As bishop of the Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, since early 2018, Archbishop-designate McKnight will soon live about 160 highway miles closer to the area in which he grew up and served as a priest for more than two decades.
“I am going to be quite a bit closer to my favorite quail hunting ground in the Wichita diocese,” he said.
He added that when Papal Nuncio Cardinal Christophe Pierre called to notify him that the pope had chosen him for the position, the cardinal asked Bishop McKnight how he felt about the appointment. “I said, ‘Well, that’s my own state, of course, so I am just savoring the whole experience of the grace of this moment,” Bishop McKnight said. “I am very happy to be back in my home state.”
Earlier in the press conference, Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann reflected on his two decades in the post and welcomed his successor. “Archbishop McKnight brings many gifts to the archdiocese: keen intelligence, deep faith, and a love for the church,” Archbishop Naumann said.
And as he recounted Bishop McKnight’s education and experience, the outgoing archbishop quipped, “When I look at his resume, I begin to think I was under qualified for this position.”
Bishop Carl Kemme of the Diocese of Wichita expressed joy and pride in the news of Bishop McKnight’s appointment. “The people of the Diocese of Wichita were well served by Fr. McKnight during his years of service to his home diocese,” Bishop Kemme said. “We were delighted that he was chosen as bishop of Jefferson City, Missouri and that he has now been chosen to lead the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas.”
Bishop Kemme adds that the development is another sign of the strength of the diocese’s faith. “This appointment further highlights the vitality of the Diocese of Wichita and the vocations to the priesthood nurtured here,” he said. “It is a profound blessing to see men from our community of faith rise to serve the Church in such significant roles. I look forward to working with him as one of the bishops in the Province of Kansas. We are proud of Archbishop-designate McKnight and pledge our prayerful support for him and his new ministry.”
Getting the Call
The Archbishop-designate began his prepared remarks awith a message in Spanish for the archdiocese’s Spanish-speaking community, and later said he planned to improve in that language.
“I spent three years in Rome studying, and I know Italian much better than I do Spanish,” he said. “But it is something I guarantee I am going to work harder on in the near future.”
Bishop McKnight noted that the announcement of his appointment began a process that would culminate with his installation at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, May 27 at the Church of the Nativity in Leawood.
“I am grateful to our Holy Father Pope Francis, for entrusting me with this new mission to shepherd the people of God in northeastern Kansas,” he said.
Bishop McKnight said he received the call about his appointment from Cardinal Pierre only minutes before a confirmation Mass on Sunday, March 23, in the small town of Indian Creek, Missouri.
“I was standing at the time, and then I quickly took a seat,” he said. “For two weeks, I had to keep it all to myself. It’s the strangest experience when you know you’ve got the call, you know what’s happening, and you’re not allowed to say anything to anyone, and you just keep going on with things (as normal). It’s a very isolating time, but I can feel the beginnings of the transition occurring – the leaving and the coming. I hate to say goodbye, but I do love to say hello.”
An Archbishop’s Biography
Bishop W. Shawn McKnight, born in 1968, grew up in a large Catholic family and attended Catholic schools.
He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wichita on May 28, 1994. He earned a Master of Arts degree and a Master of Divinity degree from the Pontifical College Josephinum (1993-1994) and earned a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome in 1999.
Bishop McKnight served as chaplain at Newman University in Wichita from 2000 to 2001, where at the same time he was an adjunct professor of theology and visiting scholar at the university’s Bishop Gerber Institute of Catholic Studies. In 2001, he earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology, also from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm, and wrote a dissertation on the permanent diaconate.
He later taught liturgy and homiletics at the Pontifical College Josephinum seminary from 2003 to 2008, where he also served as director of liturgy, dean of students, director of formation in the school of theology, and vice-president for development and alumni relations.
From 2010 to 2016, he served in Washington, D.C., as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.
Bishop McKnight also holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Dallas.
He was pastor at the Church of the Magdalen in Wichita from July 2016 to January 2018.
He was ordained the fourth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri, on Feb. 6, 2018.
The archbishop-designate’s opening remarks during the April 8 press conference also included a nod to his diocese of origin. “A brief word also to the Catholic community in the Diocese of Wichita, a place where I was born, raised, and where I was fostered in my vocation to be a priest,” he said. “Little did I know on my ordination day, 31 years ago, first as a deacon, then as a priest, when I surrendered control over my future in obedience to the Church, that it would eventually lead me to serve in central and northeastern Missouri and now back again in Kansas, as (Kansas City’s) metropolitan archbishop, I have nothing but gratitude to God, unworthy as I am, for the many rich and varied experiences I have had as a diocesan priest and bishop.”