Fr. Mottet’s experience with social action and housing prepared him well to become pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral. He felt at home in the decaying inner-city neighborhood in Davenport and was unafraid. He organized the renovation of the cathedral and school, and the congregation grew rapidly. He was convinced that renewal of the parish required renewal of the neighborhood.
Fr. Mottet was a proponent of faith-based organizing. In his first after his return to Davenport, he started Quad-Cities Interfaith. His next initiative was Interfaith Housing, which acquired abandoned houses and rental houses to fix them up and start gardens.
He was pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral from 1985 until his retirement in 2005. The clergy abuse scandal and the bankruptcy of the Diocese of Davenport affected him profoundly, but Fr. Mottet was never accused of sexual abuse or of covering up abuses by other priests,
