Retired Archbishop from New Orleans Dies at 89

Beaumont Enterprise
January 18, 2016

http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Retired-archbishop-from-New-Orleans-dies-at-89-6766824.php

Retired Archbishop Francis B. Schulte, who led the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1989 to 2001, died Sunday in his native Philadelphia.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey McDonald said Schulte died at a church-run retirement facility. He was 89.

Schulte, who was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest in 1952, served as a bishop in Philadelphia and in West Virginia before he became the 12th archbishop in New Orleans.

McDonald said Schulte moved back to Philadelphia several years after his 2001 retirement at the church-mandated age of 75.

Archbishop Alfred Hughes replaced Schulte in New Orleans.

Funeral arrangements were pending Monday.

Schulte raised millions of dollars for schools, priests and Notre Dame Seminary during his tenure. In 1992, he created the archdiocese's first formal process for dealing with complaints of sexual abuse by priests or other church employees.

Schulte kept a low profile during his time as archbishop, overseeing an archdiocese that served an estimated 482,000 members at the time. He told The Associated Press shortly before his retirement that he wasn't "reluctant to put it down."

"I've been in church administration for 42 years. That's not to say I didn't enjoy it. But psychologically, spiritually, I'm prepared to do this," he said.

[1989 installation in St. Louis Cathedral, his first words to the crowd of roughly 1,000 spectators were: "I am home," according to The Times-Picayune (http:]

During the same ceremony, he told the audience that it wasn't his job to "teach his own opinions" or "propagate his own views," signaling what would be his strict adherence to the Vatican's direction and views of Pope John Paul II.

"The bishop must resonate with the one and only (teaching) of the church," he said.