Daniel Henry Mueggenborg
Daniel Henry Mueggenborg was born April 15, 1962, in Okarche, Oklahoma, and grew up in rural western Oklahoma. He earned a Bachelor of Science in geology from Oklahoma State University (1984), then studied at Saint Meinrad Seminary and the Pontifical North American College in Rome, taking a Bachelor of Sacred Theology (1989) and a Licentiate in biblical studies (1990). He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Tulsa on July 14, 1989.
As a priest of Tulsa he served as a high-school chaplain and pastor of Christ the King Parish (2011-2017). Pope Francis named him an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in 2017. On July 20, 2021, Francis appointed him the fourteenth Bishop of Reno, Nevada; he was installed September 24, 2021. Under his leadership the diocese adopted the public identity 'High Desert Catholic.'
A biblical-studies specialist by training and author of the three-volume 'Come Follow Me' Scripture-reflection series, Mueggenborg is not a figure associated with the traditionalist movement by ideology; his relevance to the Traditional Latin Mass rests entirely on his concrete governing decisions in Reno, where -- against the general current of Traditionis Custodes -- he stabilized and expanded provision for the older rite. As of mid-2026 he is roughly 64, well under the retirement age, and sits as the active Bishop of Reno.
The deeds-based record in Reno is unusually favorable. Before the recent expansion, the diocese already sustained a Traditional Latin Mass center: Holy Spirit Catholic Mission in New Washoe City, a mission attached to St. Rose of Lima parish in Reno, offered the 1962 Mass with the explicit approval of Bishop Mueggenborg. That this survived and operated openly under his authority, during the Traditionis Custodes clampdown, is itself significant.
The decisive episode came after a grass fire destroyed the Holy Spirit Mission in September 2024. Rather than quietly letting the community disperse -- the path of least resistance under current Roman policy -- Mueggenborg did the opposite. The displaced faithful worshiped for about eleven months at the Bishop Manogue High School chapel, and the bishop then invited the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest into the diocese. He signed a formal decree erecting the Oratory of St. Joseph, entrusted to the ICKSP, effective July 25, 2025 (the Feast of St. James); the first Mass in the new worship space at 5450 Equity Avenue in Reno was offered July 26, 2025. Canon Jean-Marie Moreau was installed as rector. The oratory offers a full daily traditional Mass schedule.
Mueggenborg did not merely tolerate this from a distance: he personally attended to bless the new oratory on September 14, 2025, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Erecting a canonically stable oratory and welcoming a traditional institute (with its own bishop-independent stability) is a stronger and more durable act than a revocable personal indult. On the evidence, Mueggenborg is a rare 'expanded' case and a genuine friend of the Traditional Latin Mass. The one caution for an honest ledger: no public first-person statement from him defending the older rite on principle has been verified, so the verdict rests on his acts of governance rather than on stated conviction -- but the acts are unambiguous and recent.