Updated reaction: Houma-Thibodaux Bishop Shelton Fabre named archbishop of Louisville

Statement from Archbishop Fabre on his appointment as the fifth archbishop of Louisville:

Dear People of the Archdiocese of Louisville:

Good morning, and may God’s peace be with you! 

Please allow me to begin by expressing my gratitude and personal support to our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who today has named me the Tenth Bishop and Fifth Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville. Pope Francis has called me to continue my pastoral ministry here with you, the particular church of Louisville! I am both humbled and excited by this appointment by the Holy Father, and I pledge to serve the needs of this local church to the very best of my ability.  In all we do, it is the Lord Jesus Christ we praise and serve as together we grow in faith.

I thank Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, my brother bishop, who has faithfully served the needs of this Archdiocese these many years.  Thank you, Archbishop Kurtz, for the many ways you have shepherded this local church.  I have greatly appreciated our camaraderie as brother bishops in the fifth ecclesiastical region of the Church here in the United States, and I look forward to our continued interactions, mutual fraternal support, and prayer for one another.  I pray God’s blessings upon you, Archbishop Kurtz, as you move into retirement.

With the same heartfelt sincerity, I warmly greet all the faithful of this Archdiocese!  My brothers and sisters, I anticipate meeting you and experiencing the cultures of the People of God in this Archdiocese. I look forward to getting to know you through our interactions and, most importantly, by listening to your hearts. I also look forward to you getting to know me as I am here to serve you, to journey with you in faith, and to celebrate all that God is doing in our lives.  I am grateful for your faith and dedication to Our Lord Jesus Christ, and for the privilege to walk with this family of faith in faith on this road to salvation.

As we embark on this faith journey together, I want to greet, in a very special way our priests, deacons, consecrated religious, and the seminarians in the Archdiocese.  Together, cooperating with God’s grace, we have been called to make known to all of God’s holy people the Good News of Jesus Christ as we are on mission to make missionary disciples.  I look forward to sharing this mission that has been entrusted to us by Jesus Christ as we work together to serve the needs of the whole People of God.  Please know that I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you for all that you do, and I look forward to listening to you and to our ministry together for the Lord.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the people of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.  To all the priests, deacons, consecrated religious, seminarians and all the people of Houma-Thibodaux, I express my deep, deep gratitude for our life together in south Louisiana, which has been my home for the past eight and one half years.  I have been incredibly happy and fulfilled as Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux. I am grateful for the love, support, and kindness you have shown to me during my episcopal ministry in south Louisiana.  I pray that our providential God will continue to bless the Church of Houma-Thibodaux.

When first ordained a Bishop, I chose as my episcopal motto, “Comfort my People,” from the prophet Isaiah. (cf. Isaiah 40:1).  These words are dear to my heart because they capture what I have always desired to do as a Bishop, as a pastor of souls. I sincerely believe our Lord is communicating these words to His people right now.

(Wiping back tears) ... As a shepherd, I have seen great suffering among God’s holy people. In August 2021, the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux and communities throughout south Louisiana were utterly devastated by Hurricane Ida, the most powerful storm of its kind to ever make landfall in Louisiana. I would be remiss if I did not remind our nation of the many challenges that remain as a result of Hurricane Ida. However, I would be equally remiss if I did not also mention our neighbors in the Diocese of Owensboro who were profoundly affected by the devastating tornado of December 10, particularly calling to mind and reverencing the 77 souls lost in what has been termed the deadliest storm in the history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Please know of my heartfelt prayers for all those affected as I offer my own assurance of support to the ongoing relief efforts. May the Lord bring “Comfort to His People.”

In March 2020, Archbishop Kurtz graciously welcomed me here to present to local leaders Open Wide Our Hearts, the U.S. Bishops’ Pastoral Letter Against Racism. While I recognize that our community has faced what some may say is far too great an experience of injustice and disregard for human life and dignity, I come to you with a message of joyful hope. I have great faith and hope in the work already underway within our community regarding racial equality. I have great hope that through genuine encounter and accompaniment, we will work together to realize an even greater sense of the promotion of life, charity, justice, and peace as we endeavor to build an even greater civilization of love. Recognizing the great gifts of our diversity, as I stated earlier, I look forward to meeting you and experiencing the cultures of this wonderful, local church, which of course includes African Americans, as well as Hispanic/Latino, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Korean, European, African, and Filipino brothers and sisters, many from every land and nation.

While the presbyterate and the people of Houma-Thibodaux will always be in my heart, I pledge to serve the Archdiocese of Louisville with the same fervor and commitment. I look forward to making the Archdiocese of Louisville my new home, and I rejoice in the opportunity to become a part of this local Church and this unique area of our slice of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Therefore, I am no longer in the “Who Dat” nation of the New Orleans Saints, for I know well this is “Cardinal and Wildcat country” where basketball is king. The Lord has led me from the bayous to the bluegrass, from gumbo and jambalaya to barbecue and the hot brown.  I leave the coasts of a Cajun community to walk with you in the foothills of the heartland. And I do so, knowing that my love for King Cake and Mardi Gras will soon be quenched by Mint Juleps and the Kentucky Derby.

At this point in the history of this wonderful Archdiocese, let us renew our trust in our Lord Jesus Christ and again pledge to serve him by serving one another.  In God, we place our hope and our trust, and we are confident that God will never leave us to endure anything alone.  I look forward to this journey to the Lord with all of you.  As I pledge my prayers for all in the Archdiocese of Louisville, I ask your prayers for me as well.

Peace be with you all and thank you!

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Statement from New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond on Archbishop Fabre's appointment:

"I join with many in congratulating Bishop Fabre on his appointment as Archbishop of Louisville. He will be a very faithful and effective shepherd as he has been in his previous assignments as bishop of Houma-Thibodaux and as auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The people of the Archdiocese of Louisville are blessed to receive him. I am sure you will open your hearts to him.

We will greatly miss him in Louisiana. For me, he has been a co-worker in ministry and a good friend. The consolation is knowing he will serve you well as archbishop."

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Excerpts from Archbishop Fabre's press conference in Louisville:

Louisville Archbishop-emeritus Joseph Kurtz:
"It's a great, great gift that we receive today when our Holy Father, Pope Francis named Bishop Shelton Joseph Fabre as the 10th bishop and fifth archbishop of Louisville. I met Bishop Fabre about a month before he was ordained a bishop 15 years ago. We were on a bishops' retreat down in Louisiana. ... We're getting someone who is a deeply human person, a very healthy person, a holy man and in a special way, a good pastoral bishop. So, boy, are we really blessed now. Soon he will be singing along with us, 'My Old Kentucky Home.' However, he will also bring some Cajun flavor to his new Kentucky home."

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Archbishop Fabre (asked about racial issues in Louisville):
"I think Pope Francis knows the needs of the Archdiocese of Louisville, and I think he saw my gifts as well and thought that this would be a great fit. I know that at the appointment of every bishop is a desire to bring someone who will help them to enter and to continue that very deep relationship with with Jesus Christ. So, I think it's to build up the Archdiocese of Louisville during my time here and, as always, to proclaim Jesus Christ. ... I think I bring to the table with regard to healing from racial injustice, a heart that's willing to listen, and my own gifts and talents. I bring the teachings of the church. I bring our pastoral letter. I bring a desire to advance the kingdom of God and to get all of us in our racial diversity to understand that we are stronger when we are together, and also to recognize that at the very heart of it is a call to respect the human life and human dignity of each and every person. So, a listening heart, a willingness to dialogue, the teachings of the church and a desire to encounter each and every person and the gift that God has created them to be without regard, necessarily, for their race."

"I think that the church has a wonderful, wonderful gift of all cultures, African-American culture being one of them. I hope that they will see in me someone who looks like them, someone who who knows them and wishes to speak with them, someone who is sent here to serve all the people of the archdiocese. But you are correct, I am a Black bishop. And so, certainly, Black Catholics would resonate with my heart. So I hope that they would see this as an opportunity to say the church is vast and all are important and we have an archbishop now that looks like us. Can we rejoice in that and thank the Lord for that?"

What is his listening style?
"I stand ready, certainly, to meet and to listen. I think as the church says, we respect the human life and the human dignity of each and every single person. I hope that they would find in me someone who is willing to to listen to them, someone who is willing to journey with them, someone who is willing to invite them to come to know the Jesus Christ that we know. So, they are very welcome, and I hope that they will find a welcome here in the archdiocese."

What is Cajun flavor?
"Cajun flavor is a certain joy for life. Cajun flavor is an importance of community. Cajun flavor is the importance of family. Cajun flavor is the importance of faith. Cajun flavor is a resilience with regard to whatever life throws at us and knowing that we are stronger together than when we are separate."