Daniel Henry Mueggenborg (born April 15, 1962) is an American prelate of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

who has been serving as

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

for the Diocese of Reno in Nevada since 2021. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the

Archdiocese of Seattle The Archdiocese of Seattle () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in western Washington State in the United States. The diocese was known as the Diocese of Nesqually from 1850 to 1907. The mother ch ...

Washington State Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

from 2017 to 2021.

Biography

Daniel Mueggenborg was born in

Okarche, Oklahoma Okarche ( ) is a town in Canadian County, Oklahoma, Canadian and Kingfisher County, Oklahoma, Kingfisher counties in Oklahoma, United States, that is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. The population wa ...

, to Paul Bernard and Dolores Lucille (née Kerntke) Mueggenborg. He received his early education at the

parochial school A parochial school is a private school, private Primary school, primary or secondary school affiliated with a religious organization, and whose curriculum includes general religious education in addition to secular subjects, such as science, mathem ...

at St. Francis Xavier Parish in

Stillwater, Oklahoma Stillwater is the tenth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and the county seat of Payne County, Oklahoma, Payne County. It is located in north-central Oklahoma at the intersection of U.S. Route 177#Oklahoma, U.S. Route 177 and Oklahoma S ...

, where he attended mass and served as an

altar boy An altar server is a lay assistant to a member of the clergy during a Christian liturgy. An altar server attends to supporting tasks at the altar such as fetching and carrying, ringing the altar bell, helping bring up the gifts, and bringing up ...

. Mueggenborg belonged to the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

and received the Eagle Scout Award in 1980. Mueggenborg entered

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

(OSU) to pursue a science degree. He later said that he did not want to become a priest at that point. However, in the spring of 1981, he served at a mass in Oklahoma that was celebrated by Reverend Stanley Rother, a missionary serving in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

. On July 28, 1981, Rother was murdered in Guatemala by a right-wing

death squad A death squad is an armed group whose primary activity is carrying out extrajudicial killings, massacres, or enforced disappearances as part of political repression, genocide, ethnic cleansing, or revolutionary terror. Except in rare cases in w ...

. According to Mueggenborg, Rother's service and

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...

dom for the Catholic Church inspired him to pursue the priesthood. After graduating from OSU in 1984 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in geology, he entered St. Meinrad Seminary in Saint Meinrad, Indiana. Mueggenborg in 1985 traveled to Rome to attend the

Pontifical Gregorian University Pontifical Gregorian University (; also known as the Gregorian or Gregoriana), is a private university, private pontifical university in Rome, Italy. The Gregorian originated as a part of the Roman College, founded in 1551 by Ignatius of Loyo ...

in Rome. As a seminarian, he worked alongside the

Missionaries of Charity The Missionaries of Charity () is a Catholic centralised religious institute of consecrated life of Pontifical Right for women established in 1950 by Mother Teresa, now known in the Catholic Church as Saint Teresa of Calcutta. , it consisted o ...

to serve the poor in Rome. On one occasion, he celebrated a mass attended by the founder of the order,

Mother Teresa Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu (born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, ; 26 August 1910 – 5 September 1997), better known as Mother Teresa or Saint Mother Teresa, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic Church, Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of ...

. Back in Oklahoma for a summer, Mueggenborg volunteered as a hospital minister in

intensive care unit An intensive care unit (ICU), also known as an intensive therapy unit or intensive treatment unit (ITU) or critical care unit (CCU), is a special department of a hospital or health care facility that provides intensive care medicine. An inten ...

s and cardiac wards at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa. He spent a second summer in Mugumu, Tanzania, working alongside

Maryknoll Maryknoll is a Catholic non-profit mission movement consisting of four organizations. Together, they work as missioners around the world as Lay People, Priests, Brothers and Sisters. Mary's Knoll to Maryknoll In 1912, the Catholic Foreign Missi ...

Missionaries. Mueggenborg was ordained to the

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

on April 6, 1989, at

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...

in Rome; he was granted an audience the next day with

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

at the

Apostolic Palace The Apostolic Palace is the official residence of the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the Vatican Palace. The Vatican itself refers to the build ...

. He received a

Bachelor of Sacred Theology The Bachelor of Sacred Theology (abbreviated STB) is the first of three ecclesiastical degrees in theology (the second being the Licentiate in Sacred Theology and the third being the Doctorate in Sacred Theology) which are conferred by a number o ...

from the Gregorian University in 1989.

Priesthood

On July 14, 1989, Mueggenborg was ordained by Archbishop Eusebius Beltran to the priesthood for the

Diocese of Tulsa In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated ...

at Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa. After his 1989 ordination, the diocese assigned Mueggenborg as an associate pastor at Church of St. Mary Parish in Tulsa. He was transferred to perform the same role in 1990 to St. John Parish in

Bartlesville, Oklahoma Bartlesville is a city mostly in Washington County and Osage County, Oklahoma. The population was 37,290 at the 2020 census. Bartlesville is north of Tulsa and south of the Kansas border. It is the county seat of Washington County. The Cane ...

. That same year, he earned his

Licentiate in Sacred Theology Licentiate in Sacred Theology (; abbreviated LTh or STL) is the second of three ecclesiastical degrees in theology (the first being the Baccalaureate in Sacred Theology and the third being the Doctorate in Sacred Theology) which are conferred ...

in biblical theology from in 1990 Mueggenborg returned to Tulsa in 1991 to become chaplain at

Bishop Kelley High School Bishop Kelley High School is an American Lasallian Catholic high school with 905 students, grades 9 to 12, located at 41st and Hudson Avenue, in the center of the Tulsa metropolitan area (in the Midtown area), on a campus spanning just over 47 ...

and associate pastor of Saint Pius X Parish. He would hold both positions for the next four years. Mueggenborg was moved from Tulsa in 1994 to serve as administrator pro-tempore of Saint Cecilia Parish in Claremont, Oklahoma, then in 1996 to

Bixby, Oklahoma Bixby is a city in Tulsa and Wagoner counties in the U.S. state of Oklahoma; it is a suburb of Tulsa. Its population was 28,609 at the 2020 census and 20,884 in the 2010 census, an increase of 36.99 percent In 2010, Bixby became the 19th lar ...

, to be pastor of St. Clement Parish. He returned to Bartlesville in 2001 to serve as pastor at St. Johns Parish for the next five years. Mueggenborg went to Rome in 2006 to work as assistant director of formation advising at the

Pontifical North American College The Pontifical North American College (NAC) is a Catholic Church, Roman Catholic educational institution in Rome, Italy, that prepares seminarians to become priests in the United States and elsewhere. The NAC also provides a residence for Prie ...

for one year. He was assigned as Pastor of Christ the King Parish Tulsa in 2011, serving until 2017 Additionally, Mueggenborg served on the boards of directors for Ascension Healthcare and Catholic Charities of Tulsa. The Vatican named Mueggenborg a

monsignor Monsignor (; ) is a form of address or title for certain members of the clergy in the Catholic Church. Monsignor is the apocopic form of the Italian ''monsignore'', meaning "my lord". "Monsignor" can be abbreviated as Mons.... or Msgr. In some ...

in 2004.

Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

appointed Mueggenborg as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Seattle on April 6, 2017. On May 31, 2017, he was consecrated by Archbishop

J. Peter Sartain James Peter Sartain (born June 6, 1952), better known as Peter Sartain, is an American prelate of the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church. He served as the fifth archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle, Archdiocese of Seattl ...

at St. James Cathedral in Seattle, with Bishops David Konderla and Eusebio de la Luz Elizondo Almaguer serving as co-consecrators.

Bishop of Reno

On July 20, 2021, Pope Francis appointed Mueggenborg as bishop of the Diocese of Reno, succeeding Bishop Randolph Calvo. Mueggenborg was installed on September 24, 2021.

Publications

Books * ''Come Follow Me. Discipleship Reflections on the Sunday Gospel Readings for Liturgical Year C'' (Angelwing Publishing, 2015) * ''Come Follow Me: Discipleship Reflections on the Sunday Gospel Readings for Liturgical Year A'' (Angelwing Publishing, 2016) * ''Come Follow Me: Discipleship Reflections on the Sunday Gospel Readings for Liturgical Year B'' (Angelwing Publishing, 2017)

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Reno

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mueggenborg, Daniel Henry 1962 births Living people People from Okarche, Oklahoma Oklahoma State University alumni Pontifical Gregorian University alumni University of Tulsa faculty Catholics from Oklahoma 21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in the United States Bishops appointed by Pope Francis