Steven Biegler

Steven Robert Biegler (born March 22, 1959) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Cheyenne in Wyoming in 2017.

Biography

Early life Steven Biegler was born on March 22, 1959, in Mobridge, South Dakota. He is one of 13 children of Alfred and Mary Biegler. He attended Timber Lake High School in Timber Lake, South Dakota, then entered the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSM&T) in Rapid City, South Dakota. After one year in college, Biegler went to work on the family farm for the next eight years. He then spent time in a construction crew filling in abandoned coal mines around Glenrock, Wyoming.

By 1986, Biegler had decided to enter the priesthood. He entered Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary and started course work at Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, both in Winona, Minnesota. Biegler graduated from Saint Mary's in 1989 with a Bachelor of Philosophy degree. After finishing at St. Mary's, he entered the Pontifical North American College in Rome while studying at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He received a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1993 from the Gregorian. On June 5, 2017, Biegler was consecrated during an installation mass at the Cheyenne Civic Center in Cheyenne. Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila was his consecrator, with Gruss and Bishop Paul D. Etienne serving as co-consecrators. Biegler is a member of the Jesus Caritas, a fraternal organization for priests.

Soon after taking office, Biegler ordered the diocese to reexamine sexual abuse allegations against Bishop Emeritus Joseph Hart, a former bishop of Cheyenne. In 2019, Biegler announced that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican was investigating Hart, who denied all the accusations. In 2021, the Congregation exonerated Hart of several charges and said it had insufficient evidence to prove several others. However, it reprimanded Hart for bad decision-making. Local prosecutors declined to indict Hart on any crimes. After the Congregation's decision, Biegler stated that he believed the victims.

In the 2019 Fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Biegler said that priests needed to refocus their efforts on being pastors, to rebuild trust in the church in the wake of the sexual abuse scandals. In 2022, after the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill severely limiting access to abortion procedures in that state, Biegler called on state legislators to provide more assistance to needy pregnant mothers and their children.