Missionary zeal brings Van de Velde to America

From The Archives

BY MARY WOODWARD

JACKSON – He only wanted to serve as a missionary priest. That was the spirit of a young James Oliver Van de Velde in May 1817 as he embarked on a rather circuitous journey to becoming the second bishop of our diocese 36 years later in 1853.

Bishop Van de Velde, SJ, is the shortest serving bishop of our diocese. His tenure lasted from his taking possession of his diocese on Dec. 18, 1853, until his death of Yellow Fever two years later on Nov. 13, 1855. All of our other bishops have served close to 10 years or more. But in his short time, +James Oliver accomplished some very important initiatives for the church.

Over the next couple of articles, I will share more about +James Oliver’s missionary ministry here in Mississippi. For now, let me give some background on his interesting odyssey to Natchez.

The following biographical details are culled from Bishop Richard Gerow’s landmark work, “Cradle Days of St. Mary’s at Natchez,” where the seventh bishop details the early days of Catholicism in the state up to the 1890’s.

Born on April 3, 1795, in Belgium near the town of Termonde, James Oliver Van de Velde was from a family of high social and o cial standing in the community. His family was a devout Catholic one and early on James Oliver showed signs of his desiring to enter the religious life.

When he turned 15, he was sent to boarding school, where he excelled in his studies, especially in the area of language. James Oliver was so proficient that a few years later at age 18 he was asked to teach his fellow students French and Flemish. During this time, he began to study English and Italian. These studies proved beneficial as he entered the Archepiscopal Seminary in Mechlin, Belgium, in his early 20’s, where he was again asked to teach his fellow students – this time adding Latin to his repertoire of languages.

It was in seminary that his desire to become a missionary began to burn within him. In early 1817, James Oliver was fortunate to meet Father Charles Nerinckx, a fellow Belgian, who was considered the Apostle to Kentucky. Father Nerinckx was returning through Belgium from a trip to Rome when he encountered the young Van de Velde at the seminary.

Sharing the need for priests to serve the missions in America, Father Nerinckx o ered to bring James Oliver to the frontier missions of Bardstown, Kentucky, where Nerinckx was based. The seminary allowed for the transfer and he joined Nerinckx and a handful of other young Belgians who were bound for Georgetown College in Washington to enter the Jesuit novitiate there.

The plan for James Oliver to follow Nerinckx to Bardstown, however, was upended when during the transatlantic crossing the ship encountered a violent storm and Van de Velde was seriously injured. The loss of blood caused such weakness in him that upon arrival in the United States, he was taken to St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore to recover instead of travelling on to Kentucky. [Bishop William Houck was a graduate of St. Mary’s.]

Seeing the damage done, Nerinckx advised James Oliver to follow his fellow Belgian ship mates to Georgetown and the novitiate of the Jesuits. Again, his intellectual acumen led him to be asked by the faculty to not only be student, but also be a professor to his fellow classmates teaching “belles lettres” at Georgetown, a class studying the art and beauty of literature in and of itself. [Bishop Joseph Brunini graduated from Georgetown and was editor-in-chief of the yearbook.]

Ten years after arriving in America, James Oliver was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Ambrose Maréchal, SS, in Baltimore on Sept. 25, 1827. [Archbishop Maréchal also would have ordained to the priesthood John Joseph Chanche, SS, our first bishop, in 1819.] He served some missions in Maryland before being sent to the newly established Jesuit College in St. Louis where he taught rhetoric and math. In 1833, the college became the University of St. Louis and Van de Velde became its vice president and procurator.

Finally in 1837, Van de Velde made his solemn vows and became a professed member of the Society of Jesus. During an 1838 trip to New Orleans, he stopped in the freshly erected Diocese of Natchez and for two weeks served the Catholic congregation there which was still awaiting its first bishop – a foreshadowing of the eventual arrival of James Oliver as bishop in 15 years.

Van de Velde continued to be promoted at the University of St. Louis and in the Jesuits becoming president of the university in 1840 and vice provincial of the order in 1843. As vice provincial he oversaw the growth and flourishing of the Jesuit missions. His zeal for missions and his keen intellect and administrative skills did not go unnoticed by the Holy See so that on Dec. 1, 1848, he was appointed as the second bishop of Chicago. It required the cajoling of several friends and much prayer for him to accept, but in the end, he accepted and was ordained a bishop on Feb. 11, 1849, in the Church of St. Francis Xavier at the University of St. Louis by the Archbishop of St. Louis, Peter Richard Kenrick.

Thus, we will end this initial look at our second bishop – a man of extreme intellect and passionate zeal for the missions. In the next installment, we will explore how Bishop Van de Velde made his way from Chicago to Natchez and explore several of his initiatives in our diocese.

Nation

WASHINGTON (OSV News) – Prior to the first anniversary of a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its prior abortion precedent, pro-life activists lauded legislation passed in multiple states while advocating for additional support services for women and families facing unplanned pregnancies. The Supreme Court issued its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, 2022, undoing nearly a half-century of its own precedent on abortion as a constitutional right. The case involved a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks, in which the state directly challenged the high court’s previous abortion-related precedents in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Jeanne Mancini, March for Life president, told OSV News that the first post-Roe year has been “amazing in so many ways” in reducing abortion, but it also has introduced “an element of confusion.” The way forward, Mancini said, must be to “lean into this and do it with a lot of love” and also “emphasize the truth that pro-life is pro-woman, whether it’s the support of a pregnancy care center or funding support at the state level.”

GOWER, Mo. (OSV News) – Mother Abbess Cecilia Snell puts the number of pilgrims who in the past six weeks have flocked to her Benedictine abbey in rural

Missouri between 10,000 and 15,000. It’s a conservative estimate, she said, of the droves of people who, at times, have waited hours in line to see the body of the community’s foundress, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster. The Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles disinterred her remains April 28, four years after her death at age 95, and discovered a surprising lack of decay, leading to claims of her incorruptibility and potential for canonization. Most visitors are locals, or from Kansas City or St. Louis. Some, however, have traveled from Washington state, Maine, California and Florida, but also from as far as Canada, Colombia and India, Mother Cecilia said. “It was her relationship with Christ on the path (to) holiness that led her to greatness before him. She sends a message of the value of vocation, of charity and forgiveness, even through racial barriers, and that holiness is possible in our day. Quite a few people have said, ‘I knew her. This makes me realize that I can be holy too!’” Mother Cecilia said.

Vatican

ROME (CNS) – Devotion to Marian apparitions should lead people to Jesus and not to a particular individual or community, Pope Francis said. In an interview with the Italian state television network, RAI, broadcast June 4, the pope said Marian apparitions are “an instrument of Marian devotion that is not always true” and may be used to focus on or promote an individual. “There have been true apparitions of Our Lady, but always with her finger like this, to Jesus” he said pointing outward, “never has Our Lady drawn (attention) toward herself when (the apparition) is true, she has always pointed to Jesus.” Pope Francis said that a Marian devotion that becomes “too centered on itself” and lacks guiding people to Jesus “is no good, be it in the person that has the devotion or those who carry it forward.” Through an observatory body overseen by the Pontifical International Marian Academy, the Vatican tracks alleged Marian apparitions around the world and studies their authenticity. During his

The Diocese of Jackson has launched a third-party reporting system that will enable all diocesan employees, volunteers and parishioners to anonymously (or named if preferred) make reports. Examples of this activity include fraud, misconduct, safety violations, harassment or substance abuse occurring at a Catholic parish, Catholic school or at the diocesan level. The system is operated by Lighthouse Services. Based in Deerfield, Illinois, Lighthouse Services maintains ethics, safety and fraud hotlines for over 4,100 organizations between the U.S. and abroad.

To make a report visit www.lighthouse-services.com/ jacksondiocese or call 888-830-0004 (English) or 800-2161288 (Spanish).

The Association of Priests of the Dioceses of Jackson and Biloxi provide a small pension to our retired priests. As you consider your estate plans, please remember these faithful servants by making a donation or leaving a bequest to the Association of Priests. Our parish priests dedicate their lives to caring for us, their flocks. Let us now care for them in their retirement. Donations can be made payable to the Association of Priests and can be mailed to:

Diocese of Jackson, P.O. Box 22723, Jackson, MS 39225-2723 upcoming trip to Portugal Aug. 2-6, Pope Francis will travel to a shrine honoring the apparitions at Fátima in which Mary appeared to three Portuguese children in 1917. Public devotion to Our Lady of Fátima was approved by the local bishop in 1930 and has since been promoted by the Vatican.

World

BENIN CITY, Nigeria (OSV News) – The killing of Father Charles Igechi June 7 is further evidence of Christian persecution in Nigeria, church o cials in the country say. The priest was on his way to St. Michael College, Ikhueniro, where he was assigned, when unidentified gunmen swooped in and shot him in the back. Archbishop Augustine Akubeze of Benin City said in a statement that the body of the priest was found in Ikpoba Hill, not far from Benin City, the capital and largest city of Edo state in southern Nigeria. In a June 8 condolence message, the archbishop reported “with deep sadness and sorrow in our hearts” the death of one of the priests of the archdiocese, Father Charles Onomhoale Igechi, who was ordained Aug. 13, 2022, and at the time of his death was vice principal of St. Michael College in Ikhueniro, Archbishop Akubeze asked for the faithful to pray “for the happy repose of his soul.” Josef Ishu, secretary of the Nigerian bishops’ conference Laity O ce, told OSV News the killing of the priest is “the latest evidence of Christian persecution” in Nigeria.

KHERSON, Ukraine (OSV News) – Delivering aid in Ukraine’s flooded Kherson area has become a life-threatening task. Aid workers of Caritas and other organizations told OSV News they cannot go on rescue boats without bulletproof vests and military helmets, as Russian troops have continued to fire on civilian victims and rescuers. In some towns that are still under Russian occupation, sources say the situation is so dire that people die on their own rooftops. On June 6, damage to the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant in Kherson released some 4.3 cubic miles of water (a single cubic mile of water equals 1.1 trillion gallons) from the Kakhovka Reservoir, one of the world’s largest capacity reservoirs. Dozens of towns and villages along the Dnipro River have been flooded so far, with tens of thousands at flood risk, according to Ukrainian government o cials. The Institute for the Study of War, based in Washington, has assessed that “the balance of evidence, reasoning, and rhetoric suggests that the Russians deliberately damaged the dam.” Father Piotr Rosochacki, director of Caritas-Spes Ukraine since 2015, told OSV News the flooded terrain is now being “regularly shelled” by Russian troops, lamenting the attacks as “never-ending.” He appealed to Catholics around the globe not to forget about Ukraine and not to become indi erent. “The water will go away and in a month, two, others will live their own lives and forget about the dam. But people here will remain without basics like drinking water,” he said, adding that long-term help is needed “so that those people can live again.”