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Pope Francis has expressed his desire that the Church may be “the place of God’s mercy and love, where everyone can feel themselves welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live according to the good life of the Gospel.” The Cathedral of St. Joseph in Burlington, founded in 1850 as the first French national parish in New England, has been this place of welcome for French-speaking New Americans from Africa and the Congolese Catholic community, said Jules Wetchi, an ophthalmologist who arrived in Vermont in 2013 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wetchi is founder of a ministry which helps some 150 members of these communities integrate more fully into parish and diocesan life, to share the Gospel and maintain their culture in a new place. As a leader of the youth commission in the Archdiocese of Kinshasa who worked with Cardinal Laurent Monsengrwo Pasinya of Kinshasa and advisor to Pope Francis, Wetchi was concerned when he discovered many African new Americans, once very active in the Catholic Church of their homelands, were being lost to the Church upon their arrival in Vermont, often connecting with other denominations where the language was familiar. By forming the French-speaking Catholic communities in 2015, Wetchi began the work of helping members establish important relationships, maintain their culture and nurture their Catholic faith, while facing the significant challenge of a language barrier. Father Lance Harlow, cathedral rector, recalls, “I became involved with the African community when I arrived at St. Joseph in 2015. They had been in place here before my arrival. Part of the challenge has been the language and cultural differences and sorting out different nationalities. They are not all from the same country, and while we may think that they are unified as ‘Africans’ they are very much unified by their nation of origin, not their continent.” The communities were delighted when, in 2016, Father Harlow began celebrating Mass in French in the chapel, Wetchi said. Today, Father Harlow celebrates a French Mass once a month in the cathedral. Every other weekend, the communities meet in the chapel for prayers, sharing the Gospel and practicing songs, added Wetchi, who is also a student in the last year of lay formation. Wetchi, who is completing a master’s degree in public health at the University of Vermont, also assists members in understanding the U.S. healthcare system and laws and helps them apply for jobs. “I do my best to help members of the African community maintain our culture, which is better for maintaining the life in the family, like the holy family of Mary, Jesus and Joseph,” said Wetchi, who is a husband and father and member of the diocesan committee for the Year of the Family. Father Harlow added, “I am greatly humbled by the strength of their Catholic faith and the practice thereof, especially considering that many of the older generation that comes to Mass doesn’t understand English. They have survived many horrors in their own countries and have made great sacrifices to move to Vermont — including loss of careers, murder of family members and that disorientation that comes from leaving one’s own culture and surroundings to be immersed in a culture and climate very different from their own. They seem to adapt with extraordinary vigor.” Ministry to French-speaking New Americans strengthens faith, community Jules Wetchi, an ophthalmologist who arrived in Vermont in 2013 from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is founder of a ministry that helps some 150 members of New American communities integrate more fully into parish and diocesan life, to share the Gospel and maintain their culture in a new place. — Cori Fugere Urban photo VTC • Mary Morrell VERMONTCATHOLIC.ORG/VTC

17 APR Photo Credit: Diocese of Burlington Archives - Bishop Louis deGoesbriand (center) watches a parade from the front of the bishop’s residence in 1899. This is believed to have been his last public appearance. Cause for celebration: Bishop deGoesbriand to be recommended for sainthood. The first bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Bishop Louis deGoesbriand, made God, the sacraments, education and assistance for the most vulnerable as accessible as possible to all entrusted in his care, explains Kathleen Messier, assistant archivist for the Diocese. Indeed, many consider him to have been a saintly man, and soon, the process to declare him officially a saint is to begin. Msgr. John McDermott, vicar general for the Diocese, said Burlington Bishop Christopher Coyne plans to announce the canonization cause at the conclusion of the last session of the current Diocesan Synod: “The first step, after the announcement of the process, is to develop and foster the cult/devotion of the faithful toward Bishop deGoesbriand.” The process is directed through the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Born in France, Bishop deGoesbriand devoted his priestly life to missionary service in America. When he arrived in Vermont in 1853, there were only eight churches throughout the state with five priests to minister to Catholics. “Bishop deGoesbriand, even though he was raised in a well-respected and well-to-do household, lived in austere simplicity,” Messier said. “In several biographical accounts of Burlington’s founding bishop, his Christ-like love of the poor and children has often been noted.” Though he had inherited from his parents about a quarter of a million dollars, by the time he died in 1899, he had spent his entire fortune; he had only $2.12 to his name and a few old suits, noted Father Lance Harlow, rector of St. Joseph Cathedral who wrote a biography of the bishop in 2001. Bishop deGoesbriand spent his funds on the purchase of church property, building churches, establishing and supporting an orphanage and helping the poor residents of Burlington as well as his priests who were struggling in poor parishes. “Researching his life forever changed the direction of my priesthood in that the saintly qualities of his life have become a model for me how to live: to devote myself whole-heartedly to my Diocese, to labor to promote the Catholic faith by writing and today by the internet; by teaching the history of great Catholics in the Diocese, to use my financial resources for the poor; and to have a deep trust in the Blessed Virgin Mary and in his motto that God will provide,’” Father Harlow said. There are no known miracles attributed to Bishop deGoesbriand, but his contemporaries had described him as “the saintly bishop.” In the 1930’s, there had been discussion about pursuing his cause for canonization, but in a missionary Diocese such as Vermont, “the needs of taking care of parishes precluded any serious investigation into his heroic life, so nobody ever pursued it,” Father Harlow said. Bishop Coyne was impressed with the sacrificial nature of Bishop deGoesbriand’s life and wanted to pursue the cause for canonization. Bishop deGoesbriand’s “life was lived in true service to the flock entrusted to his care,” Msgr. McDermott said. Saints with a connection to Vermont include St. Andre Bessette and St. Marianne Cope who had/have family in Vermont; Brother Joseph Dutton, a Stowe native who cared for lepers on Molokai for whom the Diocese of Honolulu has opened the cause canonization; St. John Paul II who visited Vermont while a cardinal; and St. Isaac Jogues and other North American martyrs who are believed to have done missionary work here. Steps to becoming a saint: A bishop launches an investigation of the candidate’s life. The Church will also investigate the candidate’s writings to see if they possess “purity of doctrine.” All of this information is submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. If considered worthy, the candidate is deemed a “Servant of God.” A Church official must prove — via documents and testimonies — the candidate lived heroic virtues. The congregation investigates if the candidate was motivated by a profound charity toward his or her neighbor and practiced the virtues in an exemplary manner and with heroism. Once approved, the candidate is deemed “Venerable.” Confirmation of a “miracle” is required. In verifying the miracle, the Church looks at whether God really performed a miracle and whether the miracle was in response to the intercession of the “Venerable.” If so, the person can be beatified and called “Blessed.” After beatification, another miracle is required for canonization and the formal declaration of sainthood. —Originally published in the Spring 2019 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

On Aug. 5, 1894, a procession made its way through the streets of Burlington, the likes of which had never been seen before or after. Bishop Louis de Goësbriand himself described it as “another Pentecost.” Men and women, clergy and laity, gathered at the Mass along with St. Peter the Apostle “in spirit” through the presence of a relic; the central focus of the procession was a link and a facsimile of the chain which had bound St. Peter for nine months in the Mamertine prison in Rome. The procession itself was preceded by a solemn Pontifical Mass celebrated by Archbishop Michael Corrigan of New York. During the homily, Bishop Denis Bradley of the Diocese of Manchester, New Hampshire, stated proudly: “In becoming the possessor of [the link], the esteemed prelate [Bishop de Goësbriand] and his Diocese have been favored as no individual or locality in this Western Hemisphere has hitherto been favored, inasmuch as no portion of the chain of St. Peter had previously found its way within the limits of this American continent.” In other words, the Diocese of Burlington is the only church in the United States to have this relic. It is all due to Bishop de Goësbriand’s “audacious” faith, as he describes it, to approach Pope Leo XIII and ask him for one of the links of the chain. There were only seven links in total making up the chain, and the Holy Father was reluctant to take it apart. Bishop de Goësbriand persisted saying that the link would allow the American people to grow in a greater love of St. Peter and his successors, including Leo XIII. It worked. At 5 p.m. on Aug. 5, the procession began at the corner of North Winooski Avenue and Cherry Street, then from North Street to North Champlain Street and then back to the cathedral on Cherry Street. Thousands of people lined the streets to watch. Four priests carried the reliquary containing the facsimile chain on their shoulders. They were followed by Bishop de Goësbriand kneeling on a prie-dieu in an open carriage holding in his hands a smaller reliquary with the actual link that had touched St. Peter’s body. Afterward, the relics were placed in the large reliquary at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. At the end of the day, Bishop de Goësbriand consecrated the Diocese to St. Peter with an Act of Consecration. It reads in part: “Blessed Peter, Prince of Apostles, look down from on high upon this Diocese which consecrates itself to thee at the hands of its first bishop; but especially upon this city and upon this congregation which possesses the most glorious memorials of thy chains in the prisons of Rome and Jerusalem.” The relic of St. Peter’s 2,000-year-old chain remains one of the most precious treasures in the Diocese of Burlington and in the United States. Since Bishop de Goësbriand’s death 120 years ago there have been 11 successors of St. Peter from the time of Pope Leo XIII to Pope Francis. Thanks to our “audacious” first bishop’s love for the Office of Peter, we have been the recipients of numerous graces through St. Peter’s intercession. VTC • Father Lance

After 32 years as the founding bishop of the Diocese of Burlington, Bishop Louis deGoesbriand, aged 69, began an intense period of writing toward the last decade of his life. Still consumed with untiring episcopal duties in Burlington and traveling to the far corners of the Diocese, he wrote specifically for the Catholic faithful of Vermont. As bishop of Burlington, his writings focus on the truths of the Catholic faith, not just as mere dogma, but as the incorporation of sacred scripture, liturgy, parish life and the tenets of the faith into a unified whole, beneficial to the lives of his flock. His prolific research, travels and writing earned him the reputation among the 19th-century episcopacy as a bishop renowned for his holiness and erudition. Concerning the 1890 publication of Bishop deGoesbriand’s masterpiece, “Christ on the Altar,” Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore referred to the bishop as “the pious and learned Bishop of Burlington.” New York Archbishop Michael Corrigan stated that the book’s “fragrance of piety and devotion … perfumes every page.” Father John Keane, rector of the Catholic University of America stated: “No theme could better suit the pen of the holy and learned Bishop of Burlington, and few men could be better fitted to treat it than he certainly is.” But an earlier work which he wrote in 1885 demonstrates in particular his understanding of the need to evangelize through the heroic virtue of other Catholic men and women. He recounts the lives of several highprofile converts to the Catholic faith whose stories he rightly understood would stimulate the perseverance in the faith of contemporary Catholics. These converts include: Fanny Allen, Daniel Barber, Virgil Barber, Jerusha Barber, Mary Barber, Abigail Barber, Susan Bishop Louis deGoesbriand’s Catholic memoirs of Vermont and New Hampshire Barber, Samuel Barber, William Henry Hoyt and Anna Hoyt. All of these people were Protestants who became Catholic, many of them at the loss of public reputation, renunciation of office as Protestant ministers, and the object of public scorn. These people were well-known to Bishop deGoesbriand’s audience in the late 19th century. In his preface, Bishop deGoesbriand states: “We humbly, but firmly, hope that this work will be read extensively, because it is connected with the history of the Church, not only in Vermont and New Hampshire, but in all the States of New England, Canada, New York and many other places. We rejoice in the hope that the work will do much good, for it contains the lives of many heroic souls, whose examples will excite others to walk in their steps. Some of the letters which it contains will also be found most edifying to persons living in the world, or out of the world in religious communities.” Bishop deGoesbriand created this book by obtaining letters from the above-mentioned persons, correspondence from contemporaries who knew these converts and even traveled to the Hôtel-Dieu in Montreal to speak with elderly sisters who personally knew Sister Fanny Allen when she lived there. Bishop deGoesbriand devoted his life not just to building churches throughout Vermont, increasing the number of priests and religious, building convents and an orphanage, but he also instructed the faithful members of his fledgling Diocese in the teachings of the Catholic Church during an age of anti-Catholic sentiment. He took great pains to transmit the stories of legendary Catholic converts for the edification of his contemporaries — and for us, their descendants. The stories of Fanny Allen, the Barber family and Henry and Anna Hoyt are as profoundly moving to us today as they were to our ancestors.