Pope Francis appoints new bishop of Beaumont, Texas

June 9, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Vatican City, Jun 9, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis appointed Msgr. David L. Toups as the next Bishop of Beaumont, Texas, Tuesday.

The Holy See press office announced June 9 that Toups would succeed Bishop Curtis J. Guillory, 76, who has led the diocese since the year 2000. 

Toups, 49, currently serves as rector of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boyton Beach, Florida. 

He was born March 26, 1971 in Seattle, Washington, and grew up in Louisiana before moving to Florida. In 1990, he entered St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and theology. 

In 1993, he moved on to the Pontifical North American College in Rome, where he gained a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University. 

Toups was ordained to the priesthood June 14, 1997, for the Diocese of St. Petersburg and appointed parochial vicar of St. Frances X. Cabrini Parish in Spring Hill, Florida. He then studied for a doctorate in theology at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum), writing his thesis on “The Sacerdotal Character as the Foundation of the Priestly Life: The Contribution of Blessed Columba Marmion.”

From 2004 to 2006, he was professor of sacramental and liturgical theology, as well as dean of students, at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

In 2007, he was released from diocesan assignment to serve as associate director of the Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington.

In 2010, he returned to St. Petersburg diocese, where he was pastor of Christ the King Parish in Tampa for two years before being named president and rector of St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary.

Guillory, a member of the Society of the Divine Word, became the fifth bishop of Beaumont on July 28, 2000. He was the first member of a religious order to lead the diocese and the first African American ordinary in Texas, according to a biography on the diocese’s website.

He was born on September 1, 1943, in Mallet, Louisiana, the oldest of 16 children belonging to Wilfred Guillory, a sharecropper, and his wife, Theresa. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1972.

In 1988, Guillory was named an auxiliary bishop in the then Diocese of Galveston-Houston, choosing the episcopal motto “For those who love God, all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

He led the diocese through its recovery from three major storms: Rita, Ike, and Harvey. He also promoted youth ministry, Hispanic ministry, stewardship formation and evangelization, according to his official biography.

The Diocese of Beaumont covers 7,878 square miles in Southeast Texas, with a total population of 643,798 of which 68,597 are Catholic, according to a June 9 press release from the USCCB. 

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis: The greatest joy for every believer is to respond to God’s call

January 17, 2021 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Jan 17, 2021 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said Sunday that great joy is found when one offers his life in service to God’s call.

“There are different ways of carrying out the plan that God has for each of us, which is always a plan of love. … And the greatest joy for every believer is to respond to this call, to offer all of himself at the service of God and his brothers and sisters,” Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Jan. 17.

Speaking from the library of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the pope said that each time that God calls someone it is “an initiative of His love.”

“God calls to life, He calls to faith, and He calls to a particular state in life,” he said.

“God’s first call is to life, through which He makes us persons; it is an individual call because God does not make things in sets. Then God calls us to faith and to become part of His family as children of God. Lastly, God calls us to a particular state in life: to give of ourselves on the path of marriage, or that of the priesthood or the consecrated life.”

In the live video broadcast, the pope offered a reflection on Jesus’ first encounter and call of his disciples Andrew and Simon Peter in the Gospel of John.

“The two follow Him and remained that  afternoon with Him. It is not difficult to imagine them seated asking Him questions and above all  listening to Him, feeling their hearts inflamed ever more while the Master spoke,” he said.

“They sense the beauty of the words that respond to their greatest hope. And all of a sudden they discover that, even though it is evening, … that light that only God can give burst within them. … When they leave and return to their  brothers, that joy, this light overflows from their hearts like a raging river. One of the two, Andrew, tells his brother Simon – whom Jesus will call Peter when he meets him: ‘We have found the Messiah.’”

Pope Francis said that God’s call is always love and should always be responded to only with love.

“Brothers and sisters, faced with the call of the Lord, which can reach us in a thousand ways even through people, happy or sad events, sometimes our attitude can be one of rejection: ‘No, I’m afraid” — rejection because it seems contrary to our aspirations; and also fear, because we consider it too demanding and uncomfortable: ‘Oh I won’t make it, better not, better a more peaceful life… God there, I am here.’ But God’s call is love, we must try to find the love that is behind every call, and respond to it only with love,” he said.

“At the beginning there is an encounter, or rather, there is ‘the encounter’ with Jesus who speaks to us of His Father, He makes His love known to us. And then the desire to communicate it to the people we love will spontaneously arise within us too: ‘I met Love.’ ‘I met the Messiah.’ ‘I met God.’ ‘I met Jesus.’ ‘I found the meaning of life.’ In a word: ‘I found God.’”

The pope invited each person to remember the moment in his life in which “God made himself present more strongly, with a call.”

At the end of his Angelus address, Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the people of the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, which was hit by a strong earthquake on Jan. 15.

“I pray for the dead, for the wounded and for those who have lost their homes and jobs. May the Lord comfort them and support the efforts of those who are committed to helping,” the pope said.

Pope Francis also recalled that the “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” will begin Jan. 18. This year’s theme is “Remain in my love and you will bear much fruit.”

“In these days, let us pray together so that Jesus’ desire may be fulfilled: ‘That all may be one.’ Unity is always superior to conflict,” he said.


[…]

1 Trackback / Pingback

  1. Pope Francis appoints new bishop of Beaumont, Texas - Catholic Mass Search

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*