Mons. Michael Owen Jackels (born April 13, 1954) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was the metropolitan archbishop of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Dubuque from 2013 to 2023. He previously served as the bishop of the Diocese of Wichita in Kansas. Jackels was consecrated bishop on April 4, 2005.

Michael Jackels was born in Rapid City, South Dakota, on April 13, 1954. A child of a military family, he lived in Wyoming, Spain and California before finally settling in Nebraska. to complete his secondary studies. Jackel says that as a young man, he became a Buddhist. However, after reading a Bible from a Protestant co-worker at a country club, he decided to return to Catholicism.^[1]

Jackels attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, then entered St. Pius X Seminary in Kentucky in 1975. He earned his Bachelor of Philosophy degree from St. Pius X in 1977. In 1981, Jackels completed his Master of Theology degree at Mt. Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland.^[2]

Jackels was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Lincoln by Bishop Glennon Flavin on May 30, 1981. His first assignment was as the associate pastor of the Cathedral of the Risen Christ Parish and as a teacher at Pius X High School in Lincoln. From 1982 to 1985, Jackels was assigned as associate pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish on the campus of the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. In addition to his teaching duties at Pius X High School, he also served as the assistant vocations director for the diocese during this period.^[2]

In 1985, Jackels embarked on doctoral studies at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, earning his Doctor of Sacred Theology degree in 1989. His dissertation was a study of Catherine of Siena.^[2]

After returning to Lincoln, Jackels served for the next eight years served as the diocesan director of religious education, the master of ceremonies, the co-vicar for religious, and the chaplain for the School Sisters of Christ the King community in Lincoln. In 1994, Pope John Paul II named Jackels a prelate of honor, granting him the title of monsignor. Jackels returned to Rome in 1997 to work for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.^[2]