Bishop Cozzens’ installation marked by joy, warmth and trust in Jesus’ healing power

‘No place where Christ lives is north of hope’

After the other priests and bishops had processed into the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and the processional hymn ended, Bishop Andrew Cozzens remained in the narthex, standing behind a closed door. He knocked on the door with a gavel — bang, bang, bang — and Archbishop Bernard Hebda opened it. Bishop Cozzens stepped into the cathedral, kissed a crucifix and took the aspergillum — the instrument for sprinkling holy water — to bless the congregation.

The knocking is a sign of a bishop taking claim of the cathedral, and while most of the congregation watched the dramatic gesture from their pews, 13-year-old Alex Thornton had the best view in the house, standing just a few feet behind the bishop, near a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus where the child had knelt to pray just a few minutes before.

Thornton, who has Down syndrome, thought the moment was special but unexpected — he hadn’t realized he’d have a unique view. His spot right outside the main doors gave him and his parents, David and Patty Thornton, a chance to congratulate Bishop Cozzens, who stepped away from the processional line to greet them.

“We love to support our bishops,” said David Thornton, who with his family attends St. Bernard in St. Paul. Even with the Mass available via livestream, driving the four-and-a-half hours to see the event in person was worth it, he added. “We feel it’s important, whenever possible, to be present. … It’s a great honor as Catholics to be able to come to an event like this.”

The Mass of Installation drew Catholics from across the Midwest and beyond. The weather, however, wasn’t conducive to travel — as if to confirm visitors’ stereotypes about northwest Minnesota, the winter’s first major snowstorm brought 8 inches of snow to the region Dec. 4-5, whipping into blizzard conditions by early Sunday evening. The North Dakota Department of Transportation and North Dakota Highway Patrol closed Interstate 29, and several vespers-bound guests had to have their vehicles pulled from roadside ditches. On the morning of Dec. 6, the temperature was 8 degrees below zero, but the windchill was minus 25.

Bishop Juan Miguel Betancourt of Hartford, Connecticut, had followed the forecast and flew in a couple days early, he said. The former vice-rector of The St. Paul Seminary, Bishop Betancourt was ordained an auxiliary bishop in 2018. Bishop Cozzens was among the three bishops who consecrated him. The two became friends as young priests studying in Rome, and rather than returning to his native Puerto Rico, then-Father Betancourt came with other members of his religious order to St. Paul, where he taught at the seminary and was pastor of St. Francis de Sales.

“The people of Crookston are going to be blessed in having him,” Bishop Betancourt said. “I’m here to support him, even if under the snow.”

While many attendees logged significant mileage to be at the installation Mass, perhaps none made such an arduous journey as Ron Vasek, who, until the Dec. 5 vespers, had been avoiding the cathedral ever since he filed a lawsuit in 2017 against Bishop Michael Hoeppner and the Diocese of Crookston. He alleged that Bishop Hoeppner coerced him in 2015 into recanting an allegation of sexual abuse he had made against a priest of the diocese. Vasek’s experience prompted a Vatican investigation of Bishop Hoeppner, who had led the Crookston diocese since 2007.

The investigation, entrusted to Archbishop Hebda as the metropolitan archbishop, was the first investigation of a sitting U.S. bishop to be made public under “Vos Estis Lux Mundi,” Pope Francis’ 2019 norms regarding bishops accused of either misconduct or improperly handling claims of misconduct. Bishop Hoeppner resigned in April at Pope Francis’ request.

In his homily, Bishop Cozzens spoke about hope and reconciliation, and that resonated with Vasek. “People have to forgive each other,” he said, “but I like that he said that we can’t ignore the fact that bad things have happened.”

His hope, he said, is for “the ship to get righted and that people see the goodness in Bishop Cozzens.”

Preaching for the first time as bishop in Crookston, Bishop Cozzens said that at a goodbye celebration in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, someone had asked whether the Crookston diocese was “North of Hope”— a reference to the late Minnesota Catholic author Jon Hassler’s 1990 novel about a priest in northern Minnesota.

“It probably was written about someplace in the Diocese of Crookston,” he said. “But the point is clear: No place where Christ lives is north of hope. And most especially, in difficulties and struggles, to discover the true power of hope. And the Diocese of Crookston has been through some difficulties and struggles. It doesn’t help to pretend that these did not happen. But to have real hope, we face those difficulties and struggles head on. And we’ll do that together. It’s part of the healing that God wants to do in our midst.”

During the Mass, Bishop Cozzens’ family filled two front pews, with his parents, Jack and Judy, at the end. The evening before, Judy had shared with guests at a post-vespers reception that she and Jack had added to their daily rosary an extra decade for the people of Crookston. She asked Catholics in that diocese to pray a decade for their new bishop as well. After saying a rosary with the congregation just prior to the installation Mass, she said she also hoped that God would bless the Crookston diocese with religious vocations.

Around 75 priests (and nearly 20 deacons) processed into the Mass. Among them was Father William Slattery, a priest of Fargo ordained in 2015. He was a college student in Rome with the University of St. Thomas’ Catholic Studies program when he met then-Father Cozzens, who was finishing his doctorate. Now, as a priest in a neighboring diocese, Father Slattery has attended retreats Bishop Cozzens has given for clergy.

“Going to school at St. Thomas, you kind of knew Father Cozzens. He would give talks. (He’s) very inspiring, especially on his dissertation and the way in which voluntary poverty is part of the priestly life, and particularly the diocesan priesthood,” said Father Slattery, the campus minister at Shanley High School in Fargo, which draws students from across the Red River in Moorhead, in the Diocese of Crookston. “He’s an answer to a lot of prayers in this area, just to get great leadership to bring reconciliation, help people encounter Christ and bring a lot of renewal to this area. He’ll be wonderful.”

Also there for Sunday evening vespers and the installation Mass was Sister Esther Mary Nickel, director of Christian worship for the Archdiocese of Detroit. A Sister of Mercy, she’s known Bishop Cozzens and his sister, Helen, for more than 30 years, when he was discerning the priesthood and his sister was not yet married.

“Why was it important for me to come? Because he’s important to me,” she said.

That’s how Marta Pereira felt as well. The director of the Office for Spirituality at the University of St. Thomas, she first came to know Bishop Cozzens as a student in a class he taught on the Eucharist, which is why she thinks it’s fitting that he’s leading the National Eucharistic Revival.

“He really instilled in us the real meaning of the Eucharist, and that totally changed my life,” she said. “I have had a lot of formation, and I had never experienced the Eucharist how he had taught us.”

A native of Costa Rica, Pereira praised his closeness to Spanish-speaking Catholics as someone who not only knew the language, but also has “a heart to connect with the people.” Since his ordination as bishop, Pereira has made a commitment to pray for him, especially because he became bishop at such a difficult time in the archdiocese, she said.

“He has been a great gift for the archdiocese,” she said. “I know that the Lord has a special mission here, but it has been really hard to see him go.”