Rev. Matthew J. Gutowski

Director, Father Flanagan League Society of Devotion

Appointed by: Devotional Council

Rev. Matthew J. Gutowski, S.T.L., was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Omaha in 1988. He received his Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in 1999. He has taught moral theology at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in St. Louis (2000-2005), was director of the catechetical office for the Archdiocese of Omaha from 2005-2011, and is currently pastor of the parishes of St. Michael in Albion, St. Edward in St. Edward, and St. Anthony in Cedar Rapids in the Archdiocese of Omaha.

He currently also serves as chaplain for the Omaha Father Flanagan Guild of the Catholic Medical Association. Other current duties are those of serving as Spiritual Director for the Holy Family Shrine near Gretna, Nebraska, as Spiritual Director for the Sancta Familia Medical Apostolate in Omaha, and spiritual advisor to the board of Mater Filius of Omaha.

He also has served in the past as Director for Continuing Formation for Priests in the Archdiocese of Omaha, served as Episcopal Region IX priest-representative on the National Advisory Council for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and as national chaplain for the Catholic Medical Association.

Fr. Gutowski has a special appreciation for Father Flanagan as his “spiritual grandfather” because his parents John and Christine were married by Father Flanagan in 1945 as his father, an orphan, was personally mentored by Father Flanagan as a Boys Town resident and graduate in the early 1940s.

Fr. Gutowski’s father during his lifetime was devoted to advancing Father Flanagan’s mission of Boys Town through serving in such capacities as the president of the Alumni Association and a founder of the Boys Town Boosters and especially assisting in various ways Msgr. Nicholas Wegner who followed Father Flanagan as Director of Boys Town.

His mother likewise served as an officer for the Boys Town Auxiliary Association during the time of its existence. It is with great esteem for and gratitude to Father Flanagan that Fr. Gutowski is pleased to serve on the Board of the Father Flanagan League because his father was one of the disadvantaged boys who personally benefited from Father Flanagan’s saintly solicitude for them and his father’s love for Father Flanagan and Boys Town has thus been deeply impressed upon him.