Former Plainfield Vicar Named Administrator of the Diocese of Joliet

Bishop Joseph M. Siegel, who once served as a parochial vicar for in Plainfield, has been named administrator for the Diocese of Joliet.

He will assume many of the powers and obligations previously handled by Bishop J. Peter Sartain, who headed the Joliet diocese for four years until his appointment as archbishop for the Archdiocese of Seattle, according to a Diocese of Joliet release. Sartain was installed in that new position on Dec. 1.

Siegel, 47,  was elected by the College of Consultors on Dec. 3. Under church law, the college must convene within eight days after a diocese loses its bishop through death, resignation or transfer, the release said.

As the diocesean administrator, Siegel's role will be as a caretaker until Sartain's replacement is chosen. He'll be responsible for the diocese's daily operations but is prohibited from establishing any programs that would hamper or entail the new bishop, the release said.

Siegel was born in Joliet and raised on a farm in Lockport Township. He attended the Cathedral of St. Raymond Elementary School and St. Charles Borromeo High School Seminary in Romeoville and graduated from St. Meinrad College Seminary. He completed a bachelor's degree in sacred theology at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1987.

He became an ordained priest in 1988 at the Cathedral of St. Raymond. In addition to being a parochial vicar for St. Mary's from 1994 to 1998, he held the same position at St. Raymond's, St. Mary Nativity in Joliet and St. Isidore in Bloomingdale. Until this past June, he was the pastor of Visitation Parish in Elmhurst.