Kenneth E. Untener Papers

Fonds

Identifier: KEU

Staff Only

Scope and Content

Alphabetical subject files documenting his work as a teacher, pastor, and bishop, with correspondence, reports, notes, clippings, articles published in periodicals, retreats, courses, and documentation of his thinking on a wide variety of topics; files documenting his trips within and outside the United States; files of his writings, including homilies, articles, talks, and his doctoral dissertation, "The Church - World Relationship according to the Writings of Yves Congar, OP"; transparencies he used in teaching, photographs, and audio-visual material.

Dates

Creation: 1975-2004

Creator

Untener, Ken, 1937-2004 (Person)

Language of Materials

English.

Background

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Kenneth E. Untener went to St. Charles Grade School and High School on the east side. He attended Detroit's Sacred Heart Seminary from 1955 to 1959 and St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth, Michigan, from 1959 to 1963. Ordained by Cardinal Dearden in 1963 as a priest of the Archdiocese of Detroit, he worked as assistant pastor at St. Mary's of Redford Parish on the west side of Detroit. In 1965 he became Assistant Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Detroit and in 1968 Vicar for Parishes. He earned a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome in 1971.

He became Rector of St. John's Provincial Seminary in Plymouth in 1977. He served as the fourth Bishop of Saginaw from 1980 until his death in 2004. As bishop he was known for his liberal policies and opinions, for his concern for the poor and for peace and justice, for his homilies, for his retreats for priests, for his training of lay ministers, and for the popular books he wrote containing six-minute reflections on stewardship and for Advent, Lent, and Easter. He died at age 66 from complications of leukemia on 27 March 2004 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Infirmary, Monroe, Michigan.