Persons, Places and Things
By Barb Arland-Fye
Editor
Fourteen months into retirement, Father Ken Kuntz received a big surprise that would take him out of retirement for the next 11 months of his life helping to guide the Davenport Diocese in the absence of a bishop.
Father Ken Kuntz, left, and Bishop-elect Dennis Walsh sing during Bishop-elect Walsh’s Mass of Ordination and Installation Sept. 27 at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport.
On Oct. 20, 2023, his fellow members in the College of Consultors elected Father Ken to serve as diocesan administrator after Archbishop Thomas Zinkula, our diocese’s bishop for six years, became Archbishop of the Dubuque Archdiocese.
“Suddenly, someone offered my name and nominated me and the next thing I knew, I was elected!,” Father Ken told me during our interview last year about his new role. After he accepted the position, “Someone said, ‘You have to start training for RAGBRAI.’ I think they were joking,” Father Kuntz quipped, referring to Archbishop Zinkula’s moniker in Iowa as the “RAGBRAI Bishop.”
In his Advent 2023 letter to the faithful, published in the Nov. 30 Catholic Messenger, Father Ken shared a heartfelt message. “God is full of surprises! In great things — like coming to be with us as a vulnerable infant! But in our day-to-day lives as well: God is waiting to surprise us… if we are open.”
He admitted to “feeling a bit like John (in the Gospels for the second and third Sundays of Advent) … In some ways, we’re in a desert, too: we are incomplete without a Chief Shepherd. So, I am glad that one of my tasks is to ‘prepare’ for the one who is coming; I am not he!”
Father Ken continued, “Like the Herald, I ‘cry out’ to all of us in encouragement: We are not alone! Be patient! Hope! Yes, there is another coming in God’s own good time; one who will, we pray, please God by his holiness and show us God’s watchful care.”
It would be another seven months of waiting, patience and hope. In the interim, Father Ken worked closely with the Chancery leadership team to oversee the diocese’s operation. “I firmly believe in collaborative ministry,” he told me in our interview a year ago. “I’ve been blessed with wonderful staff people over the years in every parish where I’ve been. It’s not about power, it’s about ministry. Whatever I can do to assist with that, that’s what it’s all about. I pray for the wisdom of the Holy Spirit and I bring a willingness to serve.”
On June 25, the day that the Vatican announced the appointment of Bishop-elect Dennis Walsh to serve as 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport, Father Ken shared the good news with Chancery staff and later, the news media. His enthusiasm was palpable. “Today I can announce that our prayers have been answered. It is with joy and great pleasure that I introduce to you, Bishop-elect Dennis Walsh.”
Deacon David Montgomery, diocesan chief of staff and chancellor, told me, “Father Kuntz has provided a steady hand in guiding the ministry of the Catholic Church in southeast Iowa during this period of transition to our next bishop. We are grateful for his leadership and wisdom in keeping our focus on Christ in service to each other.”
In August, while visiting the parishes in Ohio where Bishop-elect Walsh served, I reflected on the verse from John’s Gospel that appears in St. John the Baptist Church in Landeck. It reads, “He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease” (John 3:30). Father Ken has taken this message to heart.
(Contact Editor Barb Arland-Fye at arland-fye@davenportdiocese.org)
More from the Catholic Messenger
What a wonderful leader Fr. Kuntz. We all were lucky to have the opportunity to know him. He was a kind and friendly face around the chancery building and spoke with everyone. He will be missed. His kindness to me at a time of sorrow will never be forgotten.