Archdiocese of Dubuque

Msgr. Thomas Robert Zinkula was born on 19 April 1957 in Mount Vernon, Iowa, in the archdiocese of Dubuque. After attending the Mount Vernon High School, Mount Vernon, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics, economics and business from Cornell College, Mount Vernon (1979). He graduated in law from the University of Iowa in Iowa City (1983) and for several years worked as a civil lawyer. He subsequently entered the seminary where he carried out his ecclesiastical studies at the Theological College and the Catholic University of America in Washington. He later obtained a licentiate in canon law at the Saint Paul University, Ottawa, Canada (1998). He was ordained a priest on 26 May 1990 for the archdiocese of Dubuque. After ordination he held the following positions: assistant priest of the Saint Columbkille parish in Dubuque (1990-1993) and the Saint Joseph the Worker parish in Dubuque (1993-1996); pastor of the Saint Joseph parish in Rickardsville, and administrator of the Saint Francis of Assisi parish in Balltown and Saints Peter and Paul in Sherill (1998-2002); judge at the archdiocesan tribunal (1998-2000); judicial vicar (2000-2010); parish priest of the Holy Ghost (2005-2011), Sacred Heart and Holy Trinity parishes (2007-2011) in Dubuque; episcopal vicar for the Cedar Rapids Region (2012-2014); and rector of the Saint Pius X seminary in Dubuque (from 2014). In addition, he has served as a member of the presbyteral council and the “Priest Personnel Board”. In 2012 he was named Prelate of Honour of His Holiness.