Cardinal DiNardo tells new Beaumont bishop that closeness to Jesus and the local Church will guide his leadership
September 8, 2020
Daniel Cardinal DiNardo preaches the homily during the Mass of Episcopal Ordination and Installation of Bishop David L. Toups at the St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica in Beaumont Aug. 21. (Photo by the Diocese of Beaumont)
BEAUMONT — Surrounded by brother priests, bishops, clergy, family and friends, Bishop David L. Toups became the newest and sixth bishop to lead the Diocese of Beaumont.
Daniel Cardinal DiNardo served as the homilist and principal consecrator for the Mass of Episcopal Ordination and Installation of Bishop Toups at the St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica in Beaumont Aug. 21.
In his homily, Cardinal DiNardo lauded the efforts of retiring Bishop Curtis J. Guillory, SVD, who served southeast Texas for 20 years as bishop. Prior to his appointment in Beaumont, Bishop Guillory served in Galveston-Houston as an auxiliary bishop. He was also the first African-American bishop to lead a Texas diocese.
“Bishop [Guillory], you have helped your priests, deacons, religious and faithful appreciate how things come together when you love God and you cooperate,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “There have been some real troubles here, especially those infernal hurricanes ... These have been tough years for the diocese of Beaumont, as for all of Southeast Texas. And yet, you and your people have been resilient.”
“For all these things, all these things have worked together. You have shown great love for God,” he said.
Cardinal DiNardo noted the continuity between the two bishops, as Bishop Toups also took on the same motto on his coat of arms that Bishop Guillory carried: “To those who love God, all things work together,” only adding “for good.”
To Bishop-elect Toups, Cardinal DiNardo said, “It is good that our Holy Father has chosen you to shepherd Beaumont.”
Cardinal DiNardo said that day’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans “is the most powerful and evocative piece of depth. It is really and truly a rhapsody, a rhapsody of God’s love.”
Cardinal DiNardo said Bishop Toups’s motto was “important” because “it sees God constantly working for the good of those who love and are called to be part of God’s providential plan.”
Cardinal DiNardo reminded Bishop Toups that “Pope Francis has said that such a governing spirit is to be one of accompaniment. One that reaches out to the peripheries, from the center and in every part of the center and the peripheries.”
And these peripheries, where “the spirits are groaning,” are many and include a myriad of challenges in Texas and the Gulf Coast, he said.
The world groans in pain from so much, including racism, the “scourge of sexual abuse,” capital punishment, healthcare and the coronavirus pandemic, immigration and detention issues, exploitation, change and growing diversity, and the unborn.
“Cooperation and collaboration; those are the key words,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “They’re words, I believe, in accompaniment of the Spirit, that you will do. You have great talents to do it, and it will be necessary.”