Chad Zielinski
Chad William Zielinski was born September 8, 1964, in Detroit, Michigan. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, on June 8, 1996. After the September 11, 2001 attacks he was released to join the United States Air Force Chaplain Corps, where he served roughly twelve years, including combat-zone tours supporting forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and postings at Grand Forks AFB, RAF Mildenhall in England, the Air Force Academy, and Eielson AFB near Fairbanks, Alaska. He was promoted to major in 2013.
Pope Francis appointed him Bishop of Fairbanks on November 8, 2014; he was consecrated December 15, 2014, and led that vast northern-Alaska diocese (about 409,000 square miles, 46 parishes and missions) until 2022. On July 12, 2022, Pope Francis named him the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of New Ulm, Minnesota, and he was installed on September 27, 2022, at the Church of St. Mary in Sleepy Eye.
As of mid-2026 he remains the sitting Bishop of New Ulm; in June 2026 he led a diocesan Eucharistic procession through New Ulm. Zielinski is widely regarded as doctrinally orthodox with a rugged military-chaplain formation, an emphasis on Eucharistic devotion and missionary zeal. On the specific question of the Traditional Latin Mass, however, his public record in both Fairbanks and New Ulm is thin: there is no documented TLM apostolate he built or suppressed, and no publicly available Traditionis Custodes decree from him in either diocese.
- 2021-07-30No public response to Traditionis Custodes: Catholic News Agency's diocese-by-diocese survey, as of 30 July 2021, lists Fairbanks as 'N/A'. No decree, letter or statement from Bp. Zielinski implementing or answering the motu proprio has been found. ↗
- 2021The cathedral Latin Mass schedule published before the motu proprio simply ran on, unchanged in place, day and hour: 24 July, 14 and 28 August, 11 and 18 September, 9 and 23 October, 20 November and 18 December 2021, Saturdays at 6:30 PM at Sacred Heart Cathedral. ↗
On the Traditional Latin Mass, the record for Bishop Zielinski is genuinely thin in both of his sees, and honesty requires saying so rather than manufacturing a verdict. In the Diocese of Fairbanks (2014-2022) a Saturday Traditional Latin Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral, offered about twice a month, ran unchanged through the promulgation of Traditionis Custodes and the rest of his tenure — but no decree, permission, or statement of his concerning it is in the public record, and there is nothing he can be shown to have established, expanded, or shut down. When Traditionis Custodes was issued in July 2021, Fairbanks did not surface among the dioceses issuing notable decrees for or against.
In the Diocese of New Ulm (2022-present) the picture is the same: no publicly available Traditionis Custodes implementing decree from Zielinski, no advertised diocesan TLM location in the standard directories, and no documented ad-orientem, altar-rail, or sacrament-policy pronouncement from him. What is on the record is a conventional-but-reverent Eucharistic emphasis -- most visibly his leadership of diocesan Eucharistic processions tied to the National Eucharistic Revival, including one through New Ulm in June 2026.
The fair reading is that Zielinski is an orthodox, Eucharist-centered bishop with a military-chaplain formation and a reputation for fidelity, but not a bishop with any demonstrated traditionalist track record -- nor any demonstrated hostility to the old Mass. He has neither planted the flag for Tradition nor moved against it. Absent a concrete deed (a welcoming TLM provision, or conversely a restrictive decree), the correct posture is to withhold judgment and watch what he does, not what his resume suggests.