USCCB’s Office of Public Affairs

Father Andrew V. Menke has been appointed executive director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The appointment is effective January 1, 2017. Father Menke, 43, is a priest of the Diocese of Lincoln, NE, and has served as associate director of the Secretariat of Divine Worship since May 2015. He succeeds Father Michael Flynn, a priest of the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, FL, who has served as executive director since June 2013.

Father Menke holds a master’s of divinity from Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD. He was ordained a priest in 1999. After ordination, Father Menke served in various pastoral assignments in his Lincoln diocese for eleven years, including five years as the diocesan master of ceremonies. During this time, he also completed a master’s degree in education administration at the University of Nebraska. In 2010, he was invited for service to the Holy See as an official at the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.The office assists the pope in regulating and promoting the liturgy of the Catholic Church, especially the sacraments. During that time, Father Menke also earned a Licentiate in Sacred Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy, Rome. After serving in Rome for nearly five years, he returned to the United States to take up his current position at the bishops’ conference.

The Divine Worship Secretariat oversees liturgical celebrations of the bishops at national meetings, the preparation and publication of liturgical books used in parishes across the country, leadership in liturgical formation and sacramental catechesis, and serves as a resource for bishops and diocesan liturgical commissions and diocesan offices of sacred worship seeking advice.