December 18, 2020

For The Good

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

In politics, the first 100 days in office often determines the agenda for the newly elected official. Well, for a new bishop, it is kind of the same. We do not choose the times in which we are called to live or the moments in which we are called to serve, and I certainly never could have imagined being called to be a bishop in the middle of a global pandemic. I know that it is by God’s grace that He has guided me in my new tenure as the Bishop of Southeast Texas. In these first 100 days I have fallen in love with just about everything in the Diocese of Beaumont: our clergy, religious, parishioners, small churches, rice farms, cattle, countryside, hardworking people, and the great ethnic and multicultural diversity of SETX.

So what have I been doing these past 100 days? Desiring to be a good steward, I thought it would be good to render an account of my service (to quote Jesus). So, here’s the Top 10:

1. Storms: Well, to start, we had two hurricanes! As you know, I was inspired by the Holy Spirit to lead our diocese in prayer for protection and the dissipation of the storms. Bringing our Eucharistic Lord to both the Neches River and the Port of Port Arthur for Laura and Delta respectively was an act of surrender and trust in God to lead us through whatever would come our way. And I have seen your gratitude for being spared (for the most part) overflow in generosity to our brothers and sisters on our eastern border and across the Sabine River – thank you for being so gracious to those in need!
2. Travel: I have visited all 48 of our faith communities that make up the Diocese of Beaumont. It has been wonderful to have listening sessions in all of our parishes and really start to get to know you, the people of God. I have heard about what you are proud of, what you would like to do better, and ways in which I as bishop/diocese can better assist our parish communities. These visits have brought me great joy and have helped to ground me in the rich traditions and heritage of our people.
3. Media: I have continued Bishop Guillory’s ministry of offering a daily 90-second reflection on TV. “For the Good” reaches an amazing amount of people in our viewing area, and I am so grateful for the platform from which I can proclaim the Good News to all who listen, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. Similarly, I have offered a daily Mass from St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica to assist those of you unable to attend Mass during the pandemic – another opportunity for me to come into your homes and bring you Jesus!
4. Review of Records: As our new bishop, I wanted to fully understand the content and history of our diocesan personnel files. We contracted an outside consulting group, made up of former FBI investigators, for an external audit of our files. Four objective investigators had full access to our clergy files and reviewed all of our active priests and deacons in ministry. I am very grateful to say that there were no irregularities or credible allegations of clergy sexual abuse of minors made against anyone currently serving in public ministry in the Diocese of Beaumont. This is certainly a credit to Bishop Guillory and the administration of our diocese in consistently being proactive in protecting our most vulnerable from any harm or cover-up by the Church (link).
5. Fiscal Responsibility: With the retirement of Father Michael Jamail and Sister Esther Dunegan, who were the right and left hands of Bishop Guillory, and due to the financial impact of the Coronavirus on our diocese and the damages of two named storms, it became abundantly clear that a reorganization of the Pastoral Center and a reduction in staff would be necessary. Working diligently with our leadership team in the chancery, we were able to put into place a 15 percent reduction in staff and design a new organizational flow to match our new realities. In doing so, we were able to save the diocese over a half a million dollars, which will help us greatly in these challenging times.
6. New Look: The ETC will move from a newspaper to a magazine next month. I will say more about this change in the next edition, but suffice it to say, we will now publish the ETC every other month in a high quality/glossy magazine format. This decision came about because of a few very simple and important reasons, namely, timely news can be easily found online and with this change of format and frequency we are actually saving significantly on both time and money (another $100,000).
7. Youth: Having already met with multiple groups of youth, young adults, and our parish youth ministers, I am excited to work with our “young church” and build upon the work we have already done and help form our missionary disciples of tomorrow.
8. Spanish: My previous work as a seminary rector of a bilingual seminary in the Southeast, prepared me well for ministering in our diocese. In fact, I have spoken more Spanish in the past four months than I have even in the bilingual environment from which I came. Thank God for the immigrant church, which renews the community in each generation. I need to start working on my Vietnamese now!
9. Vocations: At the Lamar Catholic Student Center, we hosted 24 young men for a night of prayer and fellowship as we discussed the possibility of a priestly vocation. Father Tino Barrera and I will follow up by inviting these men to be a part of a discernment group. I have also asked every Catholic in our diocese to offer one Hail Mary a day for the particular intention of priestly vocations – please don’t forget! We have 6 seminarians; my goal is 20 in the next three years.
10. COVID-19: We will get through this together! I encourage all of us to continue to follow COVID protocols in order to stay safe and to take the vaccine as it becomes available (link).

These thoughts are shared to give glory to God. As Mother Teresa was fond of saying of herself: “look what God can do with nothing!” It is my privilege to have been called to serve our diocese. What has been accomplished in a relatively short period is all grace, and I can’t wait to see what God wants to do with and through all of us in the years to come. As we close out 2020, it will be a year we will never forget; a year that has brought us to our knees emotionally, spiritually, physically, and financially. May we stay on our knees in prayer as we journey through the remainder of these difficult days – Lord hear our prayer! Merry Christmas!!!

Sincerely yours in Christ,

Bishop David L. Toups