Diocese of Covington gets a new bishop as pope accepts Foys' resignation

The Diocese of Covington is getting a new bishop.

The Vatican on Tuesday announced that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Bishop Roger Foys and that the new bishop would be Monsignor John C. Iffert, the vicar general of the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois.

The vicar general is the principal deputy of the Belleville bishop and assists the bishop with the governance of the diocese. Iffert handled personnel, financial and other administrative matters in Belleville.

Foys resigned last July when he turned the mandatory retirement age of 75. He continued to serve as bishop until the pontiff could name a replacement and accept the resignation. He had been bishop for 19 years.

Iffert, 53, was born in Du Quoin, Illinois, about 85 miles southeast of St. Louis. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in political sciences at Illinois State University in 1988. He carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the Mundelein Seminary in the metropolitan Archdiocese of Chicago, obtaining a master's degree in divinity in 1997.

"He is known to have great pastoral heat as well as excellent pastoral experience in his more than two decades of service" in Belleville, the Archbishop of Louisville, Joseph Kurtz, said in a statement.

Iffert was ordained a priest in 1997 for the diocese of Belleville. He also currently is serving as the parish priest of St. Stephen's church, an Illinois suburb of St. Louis.

One in six residents in the 14-county diocese or roughly 90,000 people are Catholics, according to the diocese website. The diocese has 48 parishes in Boone Bracken, Campbell, Carroll, Fleming, Gallatin, Grant, Harrison, Kenton, Lewis, Mason, Owen, Pendleton and Robertson counties.

It has 90 priests, 57 of whom are active. The diocese also has 28 diocesan and parochial primary schools, seven high schools and one university with nearly 15,000 students.

When Iffert was named vice general in Belleville in 2020, Bishop Michael McGovern wrote in a letter, “Father John is an excellent priest and a dedicated pastor, and he is widely respected in our diocese.

“With his strong faith and many talents, I believe he will be an excellent servant leader, and bring a pastor’s heart to the work of administration," the letter said.

The Belleville diocese's newspaper, The Messenger, highlighted Iffert's role in working with community and church leaders in Mount Vernon, Illinois to found Lifeboat Alliance Family Shelter, where they “help people who are homeless weather life’s storms.” In 2013, the ecumenical ministry received the Governor’s Cup Award as an exemplary service project to the local community.

Iffert first served as parish vicar of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville from 1997-2000 and parish priest of the Immaculate Conception parish in Columbia from 2000-2003. In 2003, he entered the Order of Preachers, giving his first vows in 2004. In religious life, he has served as parish vicar of the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center in the Purdue University of West Lafayette, Indiana.

After his experience in religious life, he held the following offices in the diocese of Belleville: administrator of the St. Mary Immaculate Conception parish in Mount Vernon from 2008-2010, of the St. Theresa of Avila parish in Salem, and of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Kinmundy from 2009-2010, parish priest of the St. Mary Immaculate Conception parish in Mount Vernon from 2010-2020; parish priest of the St. Barbara parish in Scheller from 2014-2020; vicar forane or rural supervisor of the North Central Vicariate from 2013-2020; and co-vicar for the clergy from 2014-2020.

From 2020 to the present he has served as vicar general and moderator of the Curia and since 2021, parish priest of the St. Stephen parish in Caseyville.

Originally from Chicago, Foys took over the diocese after serving as the diocesan vicar general in Steubenville, Ohio, for more than a decade. He was the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Covington.

In an interview with The Enquirer in April 2018, Foys said he was stunned to be told he was going to be a bishop and never really aspired for the position.

“After the bishop retired in Steubenville and I knew I wasn’t going to replace him, I was looking forward to going back to living out my days as a parish priest,” Foys said. “But then I got a message to call the Vatican in Rome. And after I finished a funeral, I called them back and they said the Holy Father wanted me to go to Covington.

“I was struck dumb. But now I feel blessed and privileged to have worked with these wonderful people in a place I now call home.”

Ordained a priest in 1973, Foys was well known for his wry humor and unscripted homilies from the pulpit.

That’s where he often professed his love for the Pittsburgh Steelers – earning laughs and moans from his congregations. He became a fan living in Steubenville near Pittsburgh for more than 30 years. He also was a huge Chicago Cubs fan, having grown up in Chicago, but said he also pulled for the hometown Reds.

Cincinnati.com will update this story.