A good shepherd
Holy Father names Msgr. Herbert Bevard Bishop of Virgin Islands diocese
By Lou Baldwin
Special to The CS&T
PHILADELPHIA — Pope Benedict XVI has named Philadelphia’s Msgr. Herbert A. Bevard Bishop of the Diocese of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it was announced July 7 by the Holy See’s Nunciature in Washington.
At the same time it was announced Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore W. Francis Malooly would succeed Bishop Michael A. Saltarelli as Bishop of Wilmington.
Bishop-elect Bevard, 62, has been pastor of St. Athanasius Parish in the West Oak Lane Section of Philadelphia for the past 12 years and Vicar for Philadelphia-North for the past year. He succeeds Bishop George V. Murry, who was appointed Bishop of Youngstown, Ohio in January 2007.
The Bishop-elect, who was in the Virgin Islands for a press conference on the day of the announcement, will be ordained and installed as Bishop on Sept. 3 in the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas.
“I am so eager to come to know my brother priests as well as deacons, religious and all of the faithful in the parishes and missions of St. Thomas and to continue the good works of his Excellency Bishop George V. Murry and his dedicated predecessors,” Bishop-elect Bevard said in a statement.
In kind words for his home diocese, he said, “For 36 years I have been privileged to serve the Church in Philadelphia as a priest. “I am thankful to His Eminence Cardinal Justin Rigali for his goodness to me. In extending my deepest gratitude to him I also extend my appreciation to his predecessors and to all the priests and people of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. I express special gratitude and affection to my beloved parishioners of St. Athanasius Church who have been a cause of great joy in my life.”
Bishop-elect Bevard “will do very well,” Cardinal Rigali said in an interview after the announcement. “He’s a delightful person, humanly speaking, but also has great zeal for his priestly ministry. He’s a fine priest, a faithful priest, a good, zealous pastor, kind to priests and kind to his people. You can’t ask for more. I’ve received many telephone calls today from people saying how glad they are for him. He’s done wonderfully at St. Athanasius. The community is a very vibrant community. The liturgy is celebrated beautifully and vibrantly, not only with African-American spirituals but with Latin singing. For all of this you need a good leader. He has all of the characteristics of a good pastor. Our Holy Father has made him not only the leader of a parish, but the leader of a diocese and we are very proud of him.”
Because St. Thomas is a suffragan diocese to the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., he will be ordained Bishop by Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl in the presence of the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, and Cardinal Rigali. Archbishop of Louisville Joseph E. Kurtz, a seminary classmate, will be a co-consecrator.
“I offer my congratulations and welcome to Bishop-elect Herbert Bevard who Pope Benedict XVI has appointed as Bishop of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands,” Archbishop Wuerl said in a statement. “Bishop-elect Bevard brings to his new position extensive pastoral experience as pastor, college chaplain and regional vicar, as well as serving on archdiocesan and other boards and commissions. All of this will serve him well as a diocesan Bishop.”
The Bishop-elect’s visit to his new diocese was a short one — he arrived back in Philadelphia around midnight of the same day.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” he admitted in an interview upon his return. His day had begun with a Mass in honor of the Blessed Virgin, followed by the press conference which he believed went well, as did a luncheon meeting with some of the clergy of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“The faith seems very strong and many nice things are happening in the diocese,” he said. Although the weather is certainly warmer, he believes there are many similarities to Philadelphia, as shown through the parish events reported in the diocesan newspaper.
It was not his first visit to the Virgin Islands. One of the events of St. Athanasius’ 75th anniversary in 2003 was a Caribbean cruise with a stop at St. John’s. “We went snorkeling. It’s a happy memory,” he said.
Bishop-elect Bevard was born Feb. 24, 1946 in Baltimore, the son of Charles Wright Bevard and Catherine Schafer Bevard, both deceased. He has one brother, Charles W. Bevard of Cook, Neb.
He attended Oxford elementary school in Oxford through grade five. Born Presbyterian, he expressed a strong desire to become a Catholic as a pre-teen, but his parents withheld permission until he finished high school. He completed his pre-college education at the McDonogh School, a private school outside Baltimore, and before entering college, was received into the faith at Sacred Heart Church, Oxford.
After two years at Dickinson College, he transferred to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. He was ordained to the priesthood May 20, 1972 by Cardinal John Krol at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul.
His assignments include associate pastor at Nativity B.V.M. Parish, Media; St. Robert Parish, Chester; St. Richard Parish, Philadelphia; St. Charles Borromeo Parish, Bensalem and St. Anastasia Parish, Newtown Square. In 1994 he was appointed pastor at St. Athanasius Parish, where he has remained until the present.
Secondary assignments include chaplaincies at Pennsylvania State University and Widener University’s Newman Centers, and advocate for the Office of the Metropolitan Tribunal. He also served as chair of the Interparochial Cooperation Commission and was a member of various other diocesan boards and committees. He was named a monsignor in 2003. He is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of Peter Claver, the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima and the Legion of Mary.
Lou Baldwin is a member of St. Leo Parish and a freelance writer.
A look at Bishop-elect Bevard’s new home
PHILADELPHIA — The Archdiocese of Philadelphia and Bishop-elect Herbert A. Bevard’s diocese of St. Thomas have one thing in common — a cathedral under the patronage of SS. Peter and Paul — but there are obvious differences. For instance, Philadelphia has 1,460,000 Catholics; St. Thomas has 30,000.
As a matter of fact, there are only about 112,000 people in all of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the territory covered by the Diocese of St. Thomas.
According to the 2008 Catholic Almanac, the diocese has 19 priests and 27 permanent deacons serving in eight parishes.
The Virgin Islands themselves are divided into U.S. and British territories. The U.S. Virgin Islands are made up of three Islands: St. John, St. Croix and St. Thomas. With a total territory of 136 square miles, they are about 40 miles east of Puerto Rico.
The territorial capital, Charlotte Amalie, where the cathedral is located, is on St. Thomas Island, but most Catholics live on St. Croix.
It is the most prosperous territory in all of the Caribbean with per capita incomes almost equal to the mainland. The weather is favorable, which explains why tourism accounts for 60 percent of the territorial income.
Since the individual islands are named for saints, one might suppose that the Virgin Islands as a group were named to honor the Blessed Virgin. Not so. When Christopher Columbus landed in 1493 he named the islands — Santa Ursula y las once mil virgenes– in honor of St. Ursula and 11,000 virgins who were reportedly martyred with her by the Huns.
— CS&T freelancer Lou Baldwin