My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

The last days of November were a difficult time for us in our diocese due to the unexpected deaths of two of our active priests. Father Joseph Ring died on Nov. 20^th at the age of 66 of complications following heart surgery from which he was originally expected to recover. Father Daren Zehnle died early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27^th, at the age of 47 after suffering a stroke. In addition to their parish assignments, both Father Ring and Father Zehnle worked with me in various roles in our Diocesan Curia.

Father Ring served as Vicar for Clergy from 2006 to 2012 and as Director of the Department for Pro-Life Services, Charity, and Justice from 2012 to 2015. He also served as my Delegate for Health Care Professionals from 2013 to 2014. Most recently, Father Ring was pastor of Christ the King Parish in Springfield from 2012 to 2020 and as pastor of Our Saviour Parish in Jacksonville from 2020 until his death. 

As pastor at Our Saviour Parish, Father Ring implemented and oversaw projects that successfully paid off debt from the 2018 Capital Campaign, created a Long-Range Plan for the church, updated the old rectory, and in 2025 initiated a new Capital Campaign to address deferred maintenance of campus buildings. 

Father Daren Zehnle worked closely with me as Episcopal Master of Ceremonies, Priest Secretary, and Associate Director of the Office for Vocations from 2011 to 2013. After completing his Graduate Studies in Canon Law at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy, in 2016, he was Associate Director of the Office for Divine Worship and the Catechumenate from 2016 to 2017, and then became the Director of that office, during which time he was also my Chief Master of Ceremonies. Father Zehnle served as a Judge in our Diocesan Tribunal from 2016 to the present. At the time of his death, Father Zehnle was Chaplain, Director of Campus Ministry, and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology at Quincy University.

His death at such a young age is a tremendous shock to all of us in the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois, at Quincy University, and to the many students, parishioners, and colleagues who loved and admired him throughout our diocese and beyond.

Father Zehnle served the Church with exceptional devotion and integrity. As Campus Minister and professor at Quincy University, he brought our Catholic faith to life for countless students, walking with them through moments of joy, struggle, discernment, and growth. He cherished his ministry among young people and found great fulfillment in helping them encounter Christ in their daily lives.

Father Zehnle was also a talented writer and a man of tremendous personal faith, openly sharing his reflections, struggles, insights, and love of Christ with the people of God, especially through social media. His devotion to Venerable Father Augustine Tolton, the trailblazing son of Quincy who was the nation’s first black priest and is on the path to sainthood, was well-known and deeply felt. Father Zehnle found great inspiration in Father Tolton’s perseverance and holiness, and he worked tirelessly to make Father Tolton’s life and witness known throughout our diocese and beyond.

While the deaths of these priests bring sadness that they are no longer with us here, the unexpected nature of their passing from this life is a reminder to us of Our Lord’s words to His disciples that “you do not know on which day your Lord will come,” as we heard in the Gospel of St. Matthew on the First Sunday of Advent (Mt 24:37-44).

Providentially, I found great consolation in the Office of Readings for Friday of the 34^th Week in Ordinary Time, the day after Father Zehnle died. St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage who died as a martyr in the year 258, wrote in his Sermon on Man’s Mortality, “Our obligation is to do God’s will, and not our own. We must remember this if the prayer that our Lord commanded us to say daily is to have any meaning on our lips. How unreasonable it is to pray that God’s will be done, and then not promptly obey it when he calls us from this world! Instead, we struggle and resist like self-willed slaves and are brought into the Lord’s presence with sorrow and lamentation, not freely consenting to our departure, but constrained by necessity. And yet we expect to be rewarded with heavenly honors by him to whom we come against our will! Why then do we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come if this earthly bondage pleases us? What is the point of praying so often for its early arrival if we would rather serve the devil here than reign with Christ? … Banish the fear of death and think of the eternal life that follows it. That will show people that we really live our faith.”

St. Cyprian then goes on to tell us what we have to look forward to in Heaven: “There, is the glorious band of apostles, there the exultant assembly of prophets, there the innumerable host of martyrs, crowned for their glorious victory in combat and in death. There in triumph are the virgins who subdued their passions by the strength of continence. There the merciful are rewarded, those who fulfilled the demands of justice by providing for the poor. In obedience to the Lord’s command, they turned their earthly patrimony into heavenly treasure. My dear brothers, let all our longing be to join them as soon as we may. May God see our desire, may Christ see this resolve that springs from faith, for he will give the rewards of his love more abundantly to those who have longed for him more fervently.”

May God give us this grace. Amen.