“Hey, is this Heaven?” asks Shoeless Joe Jackson as he surveys the baseball field that was built for him in the 1998 film Field of Dreams. “No, it’s Iowa!” replies a bright-eyed Ray Consella, played by Kevin Costner, as Shoeless Joe disappears amid the cornstalks at the edge of the field.
On February 12, the faithful in the Diocese of Youngstown woke up to the news that one of their own, Father John Keehner—most recently serving as pastor at Our Lady of Peace Parish in Ashtabula, Assumption Parish in Geneva, Corpus Christi Parish in Conneaut and St. Andrew Bobola Parish in Sheffield—had been named the eighth Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City, Iowa. It was a whirlwind day for Bishop-elect Keehner, as he prepared for a press conference in Sioux City—it was his first time ever in Iowa—while fielding hundreds of congratulatory messages, calls and press inquiries.
One that stuck out in his mind was from his office manager at Our Lady of Peace Parish. He opened his phone to the iconic “No, it’s Iowa!” scene from Field of Dreams and had a chuckle, thinking about how excited he is to take on his new role.
If that sounds like it is too congenial a way to greet your boss who was just made a Bishop, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to Bishop-elect Keehner, who is most often described as “humble,” “compassionate” and “funny.”
Aside from—up until now—being a very busy priest, Bishop-elect Keehner is many other things as well. He was a caretaker to his mother at a very young age; he is a hobby genealogist who has been able to track his family back beyond the discovery of America; he is a great cook who enjoys making homemade ice cream for his friends and family; he is an avid J.R.R. Tolkien fan, with a dog named Arwen (“She is the evenstar of her people,” he said.); he is a musician, and—by all accounts—has a fantastic singing voice.
And he is a Youngstown native, born on November 19, 1965, to the late John and Betty Lou Keehner of Austintown.
Early Life
A veteran of the Marine Corps, John (Bishop-elect Keehner’s father) worked in a local steel mill for many years before accepting custodial work at Austintown Local School District. Betty Lou was a manager at an ice cream stand in Mineral Ridge, and was also mother to five children: Jerry, the oldest; Carol and John, twins; Michael, who sadly died in infancy; and Richard, the youngest.
“We always knew we were loved,” said Richard, who recently retired from a long career as a manager of Cocca’s Pizza in Youngstown. “We didn’t have a lot, but you knew they did everything they could for us.”
“I had a great childhood,” agreed Bishop-elect Keehner. “I grew up in a nice neighborhood in Austintown in the Wickliffe Circle area. Lots of friends in the neighborhood … I lived two blocks away from the elementary school, two blocks from my grandparents. And I had cousins on the next street … I grew up with a lot of good people. Some of them I’m still in contact with today.”
When Betty Lou was 34, she had a stroke that permanently damaged her speech and mobility, and John also suffered an illness that left him temporarily disabled, so young John and Carol took on many household duties, such as cooking.
Each child was also exposed to music, with Jerry going on to playing trumpet professionally in the U.S. Navy Band. Young John also learned the trumpet, but he enjoyed singing in choirs as well.
“I first got involved at Immaculate Heart of Mary in Austintown (now St. Blaise Parish) through music,” said Bishop-elect Keehner. “They needed somebody to play trumpet for Christmas and I said, “Well, I’ll play.’ And then I became a lector … and then I joined the choir.”
In spite of this, the Keehner family was not particularly religious at that time and rarely attended church together. That would soon change, when Bishop-elect went off to the seminary and called home one Sunday to find his parents were at church. They would become very involved at Immaculate Heart of Mary, with Bishop-elect helping his mother through RCIA and giving her First Communion to her. Much later, he confirmed Richard, welcoming him into the Church at an Easter Vigil.
Formation
It was during Holy Thursday Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary that Bishop-elect Keehner first felt the call to the priesthood. “I had my foot washed, and it’s the first time I ever put the connection between the foot washing, and the Eucharist,” he said. “I was a junior [in high school] … So that’s when I started talking to Father Noga. But yeah, I think that moment, in particular, was really moving for me.”
Bishop-elect Keehner credits three people at Immaculate Heart of Mary for fostering his vocation. First, Father Edward Noga—who is now retired—was the associate pastor at Immaculate Heart of Mary at the time. He also credits former music director Tony Carsone and Lad Sklenar, who trained the altar servers at the parish.
Father Noga put Bishop-elect Keehner in touch with Father Don King—now retired—who was the vocations director, and he arranged for Bishop-elect to attend a “live-in” session at a seminary, the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, during the summer between his junior and senior year of high school, in 1984. He met Nick Perkoski at that session, who remains one of his best friends today.
He decided to attend the Josephinum after graduating high school, under the condition that he could study English, as literature continues to be a passion of his. He wound up double-majoring in English and Latin American Studies, with a minor in Spanish language. “I really feel like the Josephinum was my alma mater,” he said. “I grew up there.”
“I always knew he was going to be a Bishop. When we were in seminary, I always had the feeling if any of us was going to make it that far, it was going to be him,” said Perkoski, who is now the diocesan pastoral associate at Bishop-elect Keehner’s parishes in Ashtabula County—and is disappointed that they had less than a year to work together there. “I think it’s his genuineness. He’s very humble, and his humility … people are just drawn to that.”
After his time at the Josephinum, he moved on to major seminary at The Athenaeum of Ohio: Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, where he earned a second degree in Scripture and recalls the “wonderful Scripture professors,” including Father Tim Schehr, whose classes were “like going on retreat.”
Bishop-elect Keehner was ordained a transitional deacon on the Feast of Our Lady Of Guadalupe, December 12, 1992, and ordained to the priesthood six months later by Youngstown’s Bishop James Malone on June 12, 1993, at St. Columba Cathedral.
Early Priesthood
Following ordination, he was appointed parochial vicar at St. Charles (now St. Catherine of Siena Parish) in Boardman, which he says was “a very good first assignment” because of the experiences it offered. He served under three different pastors the first three years and was glad to be exposed to the parish school as well, which had more than 500 students enrolled at the time—one of which was a fifth-grade Father John Sheridan, who is now pastor at Divine Mercy Parish in Massillon and dean of Stark County East.
After a couple years there, Bishop-elect Keehner had hoped to study Scripture abroad, but then Bishop Thomas Tobin of Youngstown said, “I don’t need Scripture scholars, I need canon lawyers.” So, in 1997, he began graduate studies in canon law at the Angelicum in Rome—a time that he said he “would not trade for anything.”
There, in addition to his claim that he “never had a bad meal,” he was part of a prayer group of seven priests, who he feels greatly deepened his vocation—two of whom are now Bishops: Bishop Oscar Cantú of the Diocese of San Jose, California, and Bishop Douglas Lucia of the Diocese of Syracuse, New York.
Cathedral Years
He returned to the Diocese of Youngstown in 1999 as a judge for the diocesan Tribunal—a role he held in a full-time capacity for 13 years—but he only just took his last case a couple months ago.
Although he never envisioned himself studying canon law, Bishop-elect Keehner said, “I realized it’s all about respecting people’s rights and understanding what my responsibilities are in caring for others. And that had a huge impact on me—that I can’t make up my own rules. I’ve got to be respectful about the needs of others. I’ve got to be respectful about understanding my place in the Church and understanding and appreciating the lay people, their place in the Church and holding it up for what it is.”
Bishop-elect speaks very fondly of this time, saying that the close-knit staff of the diocesan Tribunal helped him to learn how to “minister to people with broken hearts.” But it was also a personally challenging time, as his father had fallen ill upon his return from Rome and passed away in 2001.
While working for the Tribunal, he held several other positions, including at St. Columba Cathedral beginning in 2000—first as vice rector and later as rector. There, he worked with the late Monsignor Lawrence Fye and the late Ursuline Sister Isabel Rudge, whom he “adored,” saying “she was one of the true great persons in my life.”
Bishop-elect Keehner also made a friend of the cathedral’s longtime music director, Dr. Daniel Laginya, who retired in 2022. Under Laginya’s musical leadership, Bishop-elect often joined the St. Columba Choir when he was vice rector, though he says he did not have the time to do that when he later became rector.
“The grace that we mutually received when experiencing the profound beauty of the sacred liturgy was the binding force in our life-long friendship,” said Laginya, who recalls a favorite memory of that time: Bishop-elect asked him to be his sous chef for a Catholic Charities’ Men Who Cook event. “I had no idea what that was, so I Googled it. Thankfully all I had to do was follow his directions! It was a fun diversion from our normal work together,” Laginya said.
Bishop-elect Keehner was also the head of campus ministry at Youngstown State University (YSU), and during this time he became involved in the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), an organization for Irish-American Catholics. Danny O’Connell, a semi-retired football coach and administrator at YSU who served as president on the local, state and national boards of the AOH, appointed Bishop-elect Keehner as his chaplain each time he was president—including at the national level.
Bishop-elect Keehner, whose genealogical research has proven he is more Irish than anything else—at 40 percent—made significant contributions to the AOH, including leading the creation and naming of the prestigious Father Flanagan Human Dignity Award for those who champion Catholic values and the dignity of all people.
O’Connell recalls his first (and only) face-to-face Confession was with Bishop-elect Keehner, while he worked at St. Columba Cathedral. After choosing the wrong door, O’Connell sheepishly sat in front of his friend and decided to break the ice by starting his Confession with a joke about an Irishman, a confessional and a tap of Guinness. “So I told him this joke, and I don’t know why. It was so inappropriate,” he said. “And Father Keehner listened until the end, then said ‘OK. Now let’s get started’—calmly redirecting me back to where we were.”
As rector of the cathedral, Bishop-elect often served as emcee to Bishop George Murry, which helped him to “understand and appreciate what goes into diocesan liturgies.” He also worked closely with Pauli Butch, who was the office manager at the cathedral before becoming Bishop Murry’s secretary.
Butch looks back on her time with the Bishop-elect fondly, recalling with a laugh, “He’s got a wonderful voice. On Monday mornings, he’d come down [to the office] to see what’s going on … and then he’d leave, and he’d be singing The Mamas & The Papas’ ‘Monday, Monday.’ And I’d say, ‘Don’t do that to me!’ Because when he would start singing that, what do you think I then sang all day long?” She said that, since that time, he has been there for her family in their “happiest and saddest times” of their lives.
In 2012, Bishop-elect Keehner left the cathedral and his full-time Tribunal work to become pastor at St. Christine Parish in Youngstown. Though he called St. Columba Cathedral “his first love,” he says he went to St. Christine Parish and “absolutely loved it.”
Pastor at St. Christine Parish
Ron Goulish, retired music director at St. Christine Parish who served in that capacity for 60 years, credits his pastors—Bishop-elect Keehner included—for his long tenure at the parish. Goulish first met Bishop-elect Keehner several years before his assignment at St. Christine Parish, and they were fast friends.
He remembers his first official meeting with Bishop-elect Keehner as his pastor, where he said, “John—I always called him John but I will now call him Bishop John— I know we’ve been friends for a long time, but now you’re coming in as the pastor and my boss, so if there’s something I’m doing that you don’t want me to do, tell me … and he said, ‘Well, number one, you know your profession better than I do, so I’m not telling you anything. Just keep doing what you’re doing. And number two, you’re not working for me, you’re working with me.’ And that was just monumental.”
At St. Christine Parish, Bishop-elect Keehner got his first taste of running a school, as he was also the administrator of St. Christine School—an experience he has come to appreciate greatly. In 2017, he became pastor at St. Luke Parish (now St. Catherine of Siena Parish) in Boardman, in addition to being pastor at St. Christine Parish.
His office manager at St. Christine Parish, Carol Ryan, recalled, “Every so often—about once a month—I’d hear from his office, ‘Aflac!’ The first time, I walked in, and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘I just signed the check to Aflac!’ Well, the next month, when I heard ‘Aflac!’ I ‘Aflac’-ed back. And so did my colleague … It was just a great place to be.”
Bishop-elect Keehner’s mother, Betty Lou, passed away in 2020, but the final years of her life were spent at The Inn at Christine Valley, which was located directly across the street from St. Christine Parish. “I could see her bedroom from my bedroom window … and I was able to visit her every day,” he said.
And while he felt his “heart was breaking” when he was asked to become pastor at St. Paul Parish in North Canton in 2019, he knew it was what he was meant to do, and he was able to find joy in his new assignment.
Pastor in North Canton
In addition to becoming the pastor at St. Paul Parish in North Canton, Bishop-elect Keehner was again responsible for a large Catholic school. Three years later, in 2022, he also became pastor at Holy Spirit Parish in Uniontown. Though the parishes were very different, “They were all just really wonderful people. Very salt-of-the-Earth,” he said.
“My favorite pastoral memory of Father John was seeing him in the gathering area of the church before Masses on Sundays,” said Ann Bendetto, parish secretary at St. Paul Parish. “He would be vested for Mass about a half-hour before. He chose to sit where he could see the tabernacle so that he could sit and pray, but he also was where he could greet and visit with all the people coming for Mass. He knew everyone by name and was so welcoming to all.”
Aside from the time he spent at the seminary and in Rome, Bishop-elect Keehner’s move to North Canton marked the first time he lived outside of Youngstown, but he still made time to visit his mother and his brother Richard on his days off. But, of course, when COVID-19 struck, his routines and the way he ministered to his people changed.
In addition to regular Zoom check-ins with his staff, “He would do live videos, on Facebook Live,” said Dustine May, director of children’s faith formation and sacrament preparation at St. Paul Parish, “He would record himself talking about the stained-glass windows, show videos of the stained-glass and then do a prayer. And we would just push those out to the parish so that, even though [parishioners] couldn’t come to church, they would still see inside the church and see that he would be praying with them. Those were just wildly popular.” May also said that he created videos for praying the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet and much more.
As COVID-19 restrictions began to loosen, Bishop-elect Keehner instituted several programs that would serve the parish for years to come, including working with May and other staff to create a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program for children. He also started hosting regular praise and worship nights with director of music Ben Walther, including Adoration and worship music for parishioners of all ages.
Last Year
In 2024, his life-long interest in pilgrimages came to fruition when he realized that going on the Camino de Santiago (the “Way of Saint James”) in Spain was not obsolete, as he had assumed. He became aware that other diocesan priests, including Father James Daprile and Father Sheridan, had recently completed the Camino, and after watching the film The Way—about the famous pilgrimage to the tomb of Saint James—it became something that he felt moved to do.
He submitted his desire to go on sabbatical to the diocese, and it was accepted—but he needed to follow the rule that he would take on a new assignment upon his return.
“I once again felt as if my heart was breaking,” leaving the people of North Canton and Uniontown, knowing that he would not be returning from his pilgrimage as their pastor, he said. He accepted his new assignment as pastor at several parishes in Ashtabula County, including Our Lady of Peace Parish in Ashtabula, St. Andrew Bobola Parish in Sheffield, Corpus Christi Parish in Conneaut and Assumption Parish in Geneva in the summer of 2024.
A couple months into that assignment, he packed a backpack and set off for France to begin his solo trek from St. Jean-Pied-du-Port to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
His 42-day walk started on a frightening note, when he attempted to avoid some wild horses that were blocking the path and tripped—falling more than 30 feet down the side of a mountain on day one. But he climbed back up, thankfully unscathed, and continued on.
He was surprised to find that he could not attend Mass every day, as many of the small villages he passed through did not have a Catholic church. It reminded him of an extended hospital stay he endured while at St. Christine Parish, when he could not eat solid foods for several weeks, because both experiences “gave me a yearning for the Eucharist,” he said, adding. “I also started recognizing Him in people that I would meet. It was inspiring.”
He took his time, saying there were sometimes “75-year-old little old ladies” passing him by, but that was OK with him, as he spent much of his time in reflection and prayer.
“It was a physical challenge, but it was also emotional learning to rely on the Lord and not on myself. There were days I thought, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’” Yet he completed the Camino, making it all the way to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, to the tomb of Saint James. Ever the over-achiever, he added, “My original plan was to walk all the way to the ocean [from there], but I took the bus—with a lot of other people.”
He returned home to the Diocese of Youngstown and immediately stepped back into his role as pastor, continuing to settle into his new home in Ashtabula. But as we all know, this stage of his life was short-lived.
He received a call from the Apostolic Nuncio at the end of January 2025, asking him if he would become the eighth Bishop of Sioux City, Iowa. Reeling from the shock of it, he said “yes,” and immediately contacted Bishop David Bonnar—who was one of the few people he was able confide in before the official announcement was made on February 12.
And since then—as he prepares to take on this new role—it has been one of the busiest times of his life. The diocese said “farewell” to him at a Mass at St. Columba Cathedral on March 23, where Bishop Bonnar presented him with a pectoral cross and a ring, both of which once belonged to Bishop Malone. His parishes also organized a special goodbye, with a Mass at Our Lady of Peace on April 12. He celebrated his final Mass as a priest for the Diocese of Youngstown on Easter Sunday, April 20, at Our Lady of Peace Parish, and moved the next day to his new home in Sioux City.
Bishop-elect Keehner will be ordained to the episcopacy and installed as the eighth bishop of Sioux City, Iowa, at the Cathedral of the Epiphany at 2 p.m. (3 p.m. EST) on May 1, 2025.
While walking the Camino less than a year ago, Bishop-elect found himself asking the Lord for an epiphany—as many pilgrims report having a life-altering revelatory moment while on the path. “‘Where is this great revelation I’m going to have?’ I asked Him. But I never had one,” he said. “Then, I arrive in Sioux City for the first time, and I walk into Epiphany Cathedral. So, I think that’s what my epiphany is! It is the cathedral itself, and I believe it was the Lord preparing me for leaving home and being detached from my family and friends and learning to rely on Him.”
