Archbishop Tobin leads pilgrimage to Vincennes, ‘where it all began’ for the archdiocese
Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin delivers a homily to members of an archdiocesan pilgrimage during Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier—often called the “Old Cathedral”—in Vincennes, Ind., in the Evansville Diocese, on Sept. 22. An 1870 painted canvas depicts the crucifixion behind the high altar—built in 1904—in the nearly 200-year-old church that served what would later become the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)
By Natalie Hoefer
As Archbishop Joseph W. Tobin stepped into the sanctuary of the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier in Vincennes, Ind., he carried a gold crosier.
The procession was usual—the crosier was not.
“This is the actual crosier used by Bishop Simon Bruté [the archdiocese’s first bishop] in 1834,” he explained to his 49 fellow pilgrims before Mass began. “After he came here [to Vincennes], he wrote to his brother in France for help. He said, ‘I need everything.’ And at the end of the letter he said, ‘And if you can find a crosier, I could use that’ because he was using a gilded stick.”
The crosier was a sacred artifact that tied the past to the present, as Archbishop Tobin led a pilgrimage of 50 people on Sept. 22 to the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier —often called the “Old Cathedral”—in Vincennes in the Evansville Diocese. The church served as the first cathedral of the Church in what would later become the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
The former cathedral predates the crosier by six years. In the church, whose foundation was laid in 1826, Archbishop Tobin celebrated Mass with the pilgrims, most of whom were from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
‘Be light for this world’
“Statistics say that 20 percent of our state doesn’t belong to any church, and many of those profess not to believe in God,” Archbishop Tobin said in his homily. “Chances are that we rub shoulders with those people. The light of Christ that we bear is not private property—it’s not something we keep to ourselves.
“In case we’re feeling a little inadequate in the face of that task, then we can remember where we are today. Can you imagine what the darkness was like around here in 1834? Can you imagine the weakness of Bishop Simon Bruté, who ‘needed everything?’ ”
Archbishop Tobin shared how, during the retreat he made in the week prior to his installment as archbishop of Indianapolis, he read about the life of Bishop Bruté.
“What jumped out at me off of those pages was what he did after he was ordained as a bishop in 1834, after he was sent here. He wrote a pastoral letter to people he had never met, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid. Fear is the devil’s instrument. Do not be afraid.’
“So as you and I, fellow pilgrims, come to honor him and the other three bishops who are buried in this church, let’s pray for each other that we can be light for this world. Let none walk in darkness.”
‘It all began there’
The pilgrimage to the old cathedral where the Church in Indiana began is one the archbishop has wanted to make since becoming shepherd of the archdiocese.
“I wanted to visit Vincennes, and I wanted to pray at the tomb of Simon Bruté and the other three [bishops], the first four bishops of Indiana,” he said in an interview with The Criterion.
Archbishop Tobin recalled strolling upon the paths where Bishop Bruté had walked, and the thoughts that came to him as he toured the historic church, library, museum and grounds.
“I realized there are no excuses,” he said. “If I would shy away from a task like the new evangelization because I say we don’t have enough resources, we don’t have enough priests, I just think of what Simon Bruté had. As he wrote to his brother, ‘Send everything. I need everything.’ But he didn’t wait until his brother responded [to get started on his work].
“[I thanked] God for what that little spark in Vincennes has produced, when you think of the five dioceses in the state and so many wonderful Catholic communities. In a certain sense, it all began there [in Vincennes], at least as far as Indiana goes.”
‘About 6,000 pages’ to translate
During the interview, Archbishop Tobin addressed the status of the sainthood cause of Bishop Bruté.
“It’s still at the diocesan investigation [level], which means the Archdiocese of Indianapolis is amassing the necessary documentation and testimony,” he explained.
“You have to submit all of the writings of someone who is going to be considered for beatification. This is a painstaking process because practically all [of his writings] are in French. But even more, they’re in a script that is not easily readable. “
The person responsible for overseeing the translation of those documents, Mary Seeger of St. Agnes Parish in Nashville, took part in the pilgrimage.
Seeger coordinates the scanning of approximately 6,000 handwritten pages of Bishop Bruté’s writings—letters, documents, journals—and sending them to the saint candidate’s descendants in France for transcription into Microsoft Word documents.
Those are then distributed to French translators in the United States, said Seeger.
“My role is to try to keep the whole process flowing, to try to keep the scans flowing out and the documents coming in,” she said.
“We have finished about 10-15 percent of the documents, [the total of] which is about 6,000 handwritten pages. It’s very time consuming.
“And this is all being done by volunteers who have jobs and families and responsibilities, so we’re really dependent on their willingness and the time they have available to give to this work.”
‘Experience of connection’
Her role in the cause for Bishop Bruté’s sainthood has endeared the priest to Seeger.
“I’m continually impressed and amazed with Simon Bruté, as well as the other pioneers who came here with practically nothing, and forged a country,” she said.
“Not only is he an important figure in the Church in this country, but he’s an important figure in the history of the country and the history of Indiana. I feel like his story is a story for all of us in Indiana.”
Kevin Daily, a member of St. Lawrence Parish in Lawrenceburg, witnessed two things “come full circle” during the pilgrimage.
“Watching the archbishop walk into the cathedral, it was kind of like coming full circle—the first bishop, Simon Bruté, and then our present archbishop coming together on that spiritual ground, tied by that crosier,” he said.
“It kind of came full circle in another way in that our son, Eamonn, is a seminarian staying at the [Bishop] Simon Bruté [college seminary in Indianapolis].”
For Patrick Murphy, a member of St. Pius X Parish in Indianapolis, the pilgrimage turned into a bit of a homecoming.
“I have a relative, Patrick Joseph Ryan Murphy, who was recruited by one of the early bishops to serve in the diocese,” he said. “So I went to the museum today, and his picture was there and, small world, my cousin was one of the tour guides there today.”
Archbishop Tobin sensed the connection of past with present while on the pilgrimage to Vincennes.
“When people ask why do I like to be Catholic, I say, ‘I think Catholics consider themselves to be connected across space and time,’ ” he said. “Being there [in Vincennes] was to experience the connection—with the [first] four bishops, but also with the predecessors that went before us, and through them to God. It was a lovely experience of connection.”
(For more information about the beatification and canonization cause of the Servant of God Bishop Simon Bruté, log on to www.archindy.org/brute.) †
