Photo Caption: Father Mwongyera will assist Bishop Jenky in exercising the bishop’s judicial authority on various matters and work with Sister Marianne Burkhard, OSB, in directing the Office of the Tribunal.

Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, has appointed Father Martin Mwongyera as judicial vicar for the Diocese of Peoria. He will assist Bishop Jenky in exercising the bishop’s judicial authority on various matters and work with Sister Marianne Burkhard, OSB, in directing the Office of the Tribunal, whose primary task is investigating marriage cases.

As judicial vicar, Father Mwongyera succeeds Msgr. James E. Kruse, who will continue as vicar general of the Diocese of Peoria and now serve as a judge in the Tribunal.

The appointments were effective on Wednesday, March 25.

Father Mwongyera — ordained for the Diocese of Kabale, Uganda, in 1996 — has served in the Diocese of Peoria since 2006, first during summer months while on break from studies and since 2008 in parishes and as a hospital chaplain.

He holds a doctorate and a licentiate in canon law from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium and has been a judge in the Diocesan Tribunal since 2012. Father Mwongyera will continue as parochial vicar of St. Mary’s Cathedral and St. Bernard parishes in Peoria.