Bishop Conlon resigns as head of Diocese of Joliet

The Most Rev. R. Daniel Conlon has resigned as bishop of the Diocese of Joliet after being on leave since December for health issues.

Pope Francis announced Monday that he has accepted Conlon’s resignation.

Conlon, bishop of the Joliet diocese since 2011, has not been back to work since taking leave after a medical incident while saying Mass at the Cathedral of St. Raymond on Dec. 22.

He was not available for comment Monday.

But the diocese released a statement from Conlon saying he had experienced “stress and fatigue” along with “serious medical issues.”

His medical leave, granted by Pope Francis as well, was announced Dec. 27.

“The leave of absence the Holy Father granted me at the beginning of this year was a huge blessing,” Conlon said in the statement. “I experienced personal healing and was able to recognize that, at 71, I am no longer able to carry the burden of leadership of a large diocese.”

The Diocese of Joliet serves more than 616,000 Catholics in 118 parishes and seven missions in seven counties, according to the news release from the diocese on Conlon’s resignation.

The diocese has more than 3,000 employees in its systems and ministries, including Catholic Charities. The diocese has 53 elementary and secondary schools and three Catholic universities.

It will continue to be led on an interim basis by Bishop Richard E. Pates, the bishop emeritus of Des Moines who has been serving as apostolic administrator for the Diocese of Joliet since Conlon went on medical leave.

Pates came out of retirement to lead the Joliet diocese during Conlon’s absence. He will be leaving once a new bishop arrives, Pates said Monday.

Among Conlon's achievements cited by Pates was the creation of the Blanchette Catholic Center in Crest Hill. The move into the new space was a controversial one as the diocese left its original home offices in Joliet. But Pates said it also allowed for the consolidation of the many diocesan operations into one location.

Pates noted that Conlon also took on the “daunting task” of visiting each one of the parishes in the diocese, which he had accomplished over the course of a couple of years.

“He’s been very much a leader in evangelization, encouraging people to deepen their faith and then to share their faith,” Pates said.

Pates said he had heard from many people since Conlon went on leave who “were grateful that he had an opportunity to take care of his health concerns.”

Conlon said in his statement that his “hope” in retirement “is to continue to live and minister among you and even reside in one of our rectories.”

He described 2019 as “a challenging year for me. I experienced a lot of stress and fatigue, which I did not always handle well, along with some serious medical issues, plus the death of my best friend.”

He had been leading the diocese without the assistance of an auxiliary bishop since then-Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Siegel left in 2017 to become bishop of the Diocese of Evansville, Indiana.

The Joliet diocese in past years has had as many as two auxiliary bishops.

Conlon took his medical leave after the incident during the Mass at the cathedral in which he was taken away by ambulance.

Diocese spokesman Alex Rechenmacher confirmed that Conlon had been hospitalized after the incident but was released the next day.

“The search for a new bishop of the diocese will begin right away,” Rechenmacher said in an email.

He said the pope will name the next bishop, and the process is handled by the Vatican. There is no specific timetable for the naming of a replacement.