[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 11 (Thursday, January 22, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Page S418]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                  TRIBUTE TO BISHOP CHAD W. ZIELINSKI

 Ms. MURKOWSKI. In November, Father Chad Zielinski, the deputy 
wing chaplain at Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, received what 
he regarded as an odd early morning telephone call. The call came from 
the Apostolic Nuncio, the Vatican's ambassador to the United States. 
The Nuncio informed Father Zielinski that he had been selected by Pope 
Francis to serve as the Catholic bishop of Fairbanks.
  His immediate reaction: This makes no sense; how can this be? There 
must be some mistake. But there was no mistake. In December, Bishop 
Zielinski was ordained and installed to lead the Diocese of Fairbanks. 
The Catholic Anchor newspaper reports that Bishop Zielinski is the 
first active duty military chaplain in recent history to shepherd a 
diocese. At age 50 he is also the 11th youngest of the 267 active U.S. 
Catholic bishops.
  The selection was met with great enthusiasm throughout interior 
Alaska and especially in our military community. Before being called to 
the priesthood, Bishop Zielinski served on active duty in the Air 
Force. He was ordained a priest for the Catholic Diocese of Gaylord, 
MI, in 1996. But after the events of September 11 he saw a need for 
Catholic chaplains in the military and rejoined the Air Force.
  His Air Force career was varied. Bishop Zielinski served as Roman 
Catholic cadet chaplain at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs 
and as a chaplain recruiter assigned to the Air Force Recruiting 
Service. He also served at Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota 
and at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, England.
  And he served three tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan--his first 
in Baghdad in 2003 and his last in Afghanistan where he served 18 
forward combat positions, where religious services were punctuated by 
the sound of live gun fire. On one sad day, the convoy in which he was 
traveling was hit by a rocket, killing one of the drivers, who also 
happened to be a parishioner. That day ended with the bishop conducting 
a funeral. Needless to say, Bishop Zielinski was regarded as an 
exemplary chaplain and I have no doubt that he will be an exemplary 
bishop.
  The Diocese of Fairbanks, the most northern and geographically 
diverse in the United States, covers some 410,000 square miles. It 
holds 46 parishes, most of which are in the Alaska Native villages. I 
am excited about Bishop Zielinski's elevation and I look forward to 
working closely with him in his new and important role as a leader in 
our faith community.

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