Welcome Bishop Designate! Very Rev. Godfrey Mullen, OSB

With great joy and gratitude, the Diocese welcomes the announcement of our new bishop-designate, Very Rev. Godfrey Mullen, OSB. After months of prayer and anticipation, we give thanks to God for the shepherd who will soon lead our diocesan family.

STATEMENT OF FATHER GODFREY MULLEN, OSB:
(PDF)

Last Saturday morning, Pope Leo XIV named Cardinal Christophe Pierre’s successor as apostolic nuncio to the United States. Later that morning, I drove to Eudora, Kansas to preach a parish mission. While I was in the confessional there, I missed two calls. The phone said “Apostolic Nuncio.” I saw those missed calls after confessions and before the Vigil Mass. I went on with Mass, admittedly distractedly, and returned the call after I left church that evening. I congratulated Cardinal Pierre on the announcement of his coming resignation. Then he informed me that the Holy Father had appointed me the tenth Bishop of Belleville.

My sincere thanks to our brother from Illinois, the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, for his confidence in calling me to shepherd this beautiful flock. I also thank Cardinal Christophe Pierre, Cardinal Blase Cupich, and Archbishop Michael McGovern for their assistance over the past few days in particular. Although some in the diocese have commented that this was their plan, today, I accept this mission in the Church, this service to His people, as God’s plan.

I was surprised by Cardinal Pierre’s call. While the past ten months as Diocesan Administrator have given me a glimpse into the work of the Bishop, it is uncommon that a Diocesan Administrator is appointed Bishop of the same Diocese. As I told Cardinal Pierre, I have accepted many assignments from Abbots and Bishops under whom I have served and have nearly always grown to love those assignments. I trust that pattern will continue.

As a son of this diocese since I was nine months old, I have always been fascinated by the way Christ is present in His wonderful people in Southern Illinois. With my parents being intimately involved in the work of Saint Theresa of Avila Parish in Salem, I grew up knowing Diocesan Priests and Precious Blood and Felician Sisters. In my high school years, the diocesan youth conference provided a memorable experience of the big and diverse place this Diocese is. The past ten months have taken me to towns in Southern Illinois where I’d never been before and in every place, there have been warm welcomes and exquisitely visible, living faith. You all are my people. All my life, I have loved you.

Before his departure from here, Archbishop McGovern promulgated a pastoral plan that called our local Church to attend to important priorities: youth and young adults, family life, faith formation, and vital parish life and ministry. This plan, promulgated on Pentecost Sunday, 2024, looked for ways the Holy Spirit could revitalize and prosper our Diocese. The diocesan staff has heard from many about their hopes. And my fundamental hope, after assuring the vibrancy of our central work of worshiping God in the Eucharist, is to welcome the power of the Holy Spirit again into our lives and into our parishes, so that instead of fearing our future, we might be passionately focused on how we, as joyful Disciples of our Savior Jesus, can build His Kingdom in this place and thrive to His glory and honor.

The ninety-nine parishes in our Diocese have been tremendously blessed with gifts beyond all telling. Those gifts have been imparted by our Creator for that singular purpose: building the Kingdom. Instead of focusing on threats, let us seize courageously upon the myriad opportunities we have to welcome Christ in the stranger, to pray with and for one another, to be formed daily in the tradition of grace, to serve Christ in the least of His brothers and sisters, and to call young people to the beautiful service of ministry. In the immigrant, the stranger, the incarcerated, the mentally ill, the alienated, the hungry, the homeless, the elderly and the young, and from East St. Louis to Mt. Carmel, from Kinmundy to Cairo, in every place here, we can find Christ if we look for Him with faith and hope, with the genuine charity that is rightly our way of life.

To be disciples of Jesus means that we must be students and practitioners of hospitality, prayer, formation, and service every day. These four pillars of stewardship must mark our work as we walk the way with Christ. They are our surest appropriate response to all the good He has done for us. These are sturdy pillars upon which many parishes, communities, and schools have been built.

As a Benedictine monk since 1988, I greatly esteem the Church’s tradition of prayer and welcome, of education and peace. Our schools, our service agencies, our religious communities all provide us with opportunities to build the Kingdom of Peace, to bring about that great Day of Peace that only Christ Himself can accomplish.

To my family, my parents and sister who are deceased and my living siblings, who first shared the faith with me, thank you. To the monks of Saint Meinrad who have tolerated this extrovert in their midst these past 38 years and taught me the invaluable rhythm of prayer and work, thank you. To brother priests near and far who have trained my heart to love the sheep of Christ’s flock, thank you. To the deacons who serve our people so faithfully, thank you. To the seminarians, deacon candidates, lay students, and youth who challenged me in ministry at Saint Meinrad, thank you. To women religious who taught me and welcomed me as chaplain and retreat preacher, thank you. To parishioners who proved to me that every parish can thrive, really thrive, through the good work of stewardship, thank you. To all the people of the Diocese of Evansville and this Diocese of Belleville who have welcomed me into your lives and trained my heart to see such goodness in you, thank you.

And so, on May 1, we set out on the tenth leg of this trek toward salvation in the Diocese of Belleville. May our good and gracious God bless us with the good cheer of grateful givers. May He bring us lasting peace. May He convince us of the extravagant graces still to be bestowed. And in His good time, may He bring us all together to everlasting life.