While at Notre Dame, Konzen entered the novitiate for the Society of Mary. He took his first vows as a Marist in 1975. The Marists in 1976 assigned Konzen as a teacher at St. Peter Chanel High School in Bedford, Ohio for one year. He then attended the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., receiving a Master of Theology degree in systematic theology in 1978. That same year, Konen returned to New Orleans to take perpetual vows as a Marist and was ordained a deacon.[1] As a deacon, he was then assigned to serve at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in New Orleans.[2]
Priesthood
On May 19, 1979, Konzen was ordained to the priesthood for the Society of Mary by Bishop Stanley Ott at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in New Orleans.[3] After his ordination, the Marists assigned him to a pastor role in 1979 at St. Edmond Parish in Lafayette, Louisiana.[2]
The Marists sent Konzen in 1980 to Brookhaven, Georgia, to teach at the Marist School.Over the next nine years, he also served as admissions director, principal and president there. In 1990, the Marists appointed Konzen as vicar provincial of the former Washington Province of the Society of Mary in Washington D.C. He went back to Catholic University during this period, receiving a Master of Educational Administration degree in 1991.[1]
Konzen was appointed in 1992 as principal and president at St. Michael's Catholic Academy in Austin, Texas, administering there for the next five years. The Marists in 1997 reassigned him as vicar provincial in Washington for two years.[1] Konzen returned to the Marist School in Brookhaven in 1999 to serve as principal and then president until 2018. He assisted in the founding of Notre Dame Academy and Cristo Rey Atlanta Jesuit High School in Atlanta. In 2015, Konzen received the Educational Excellence Award of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA).[1][2]
On May 24, 2019, after the installation of Gregory as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Washington, the college of consultors in Atlanta elected Konzen as the administrator of the archdiocese. Konzen's administrator responsibilities ended on May 6, 2020, with the installation of then Bishop Gregory Hartmayer as the new archbishop of Atlanta.
The Bishop Joel Konzen School was founded in 2021 at the Pope Francis School and Health Center in Avenui, Ghana.[5]
Boards
Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans
Pope Francis School and Health Center in Ghana
Marist School in Brookhaven
Coat of arms
For Konzen the shield is silver (white) with a blue pile (an A-shaped device) upon which is displayed the conjoined "A" and "M," known an "the monogram of Mary," in silver (white) that is the emblem of the Society of Mary. The pile resembles an inlet of water, such as a bay or harbor, and this pile is charged with a gold (yellow) oak leaf to signify Oak Harbor, Ohio, Konzen's home town. Above the pile are an open book (gold [yellow] with red edges) and a red cross to signify that Konzen has spent most of his life in education, in a Catholic environment, including his last position, before becoming a bishop, as president of the Marist School.
