Archbishop Fabre Farewell
Archbishop Fabre and Archbishop Emeritus Kurtz during Louisville press conference
MARNIE McALLISTER/THE RECORD
Archbishop Emeritus Joseph E. Kurtz welcomes Archbishop Fabre to Louisville Story by Janet Marcel Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, KY, Feb. 8, 2022, and appointed Bishop Shelton J. Fabre of Houma-Thibodaux, LA, as his successor. Archbishop Emeritus Kurtz turned 75 on Aug. 18, 2021, the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation to the pope. The Archdiocese of Louisville, KY, much like the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux’s melting pot of cultures and ethnicities that include Acadians, African Americans, American Indians, Hispanics, Vietnamese and people of European descent, also has a diverse population base. According to Archbishop Emeritus Kurtz, who has served the archdiocese for 15 years, since Aug. 15, 2007, the primary ethnicities that make up the Archdiocese of Louisville are historically French, German, Irish and English immigrants, with the oldest African American parish dating back to 1870. “Archbishop Fabre is joining a very rich Catholic tradition that began in 1808 when the Diocese of Baltimore was elevated to an archdiocese and subdivided into four new dioceses, Boston, MA; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Bardstown, KY (which is now Louisville). The history of the Archdiocese of Louisville is similar to the history and richness of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, which dates back to 1793, and that Houma-Thibodaux was a part of originally. 12 • Bayou Catholic • Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux • April 2022
The majority of the population in the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, which is made up of many small rural communities and is known for its bayous, swampland and marsh, belongs to the Catholic faith. Archbishop Emeritus Kurtz explains that in the archdiocese there are three geographic levels from north to south. Within the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Archdiocese of Louisville occupies the center slice – north from the Ohio river and south to the Kentucky/Tennessee border. The Diocese of Owensboro is to the west and the Dioceses of Lexington and Covington are to the east. These geographic layers coincide with distinct layers of the faith of the people. In the city of Louisville South, explains the archbishop, over 50 percent of the people are Catholic and there is a great history of Catholicism in the institutions. Louisville is a metropolitan city on the Ohio river. Half of the church parishes in the archdiocese are in Jefferson County where Louisville is. The other parishes are much smaller and in more rural areas. “Farther South in the central part of the archdiocese are the rolling hills of what I call the ‘Catholic Holy Land of Kentucky,’ which is made up of Bardstown, Springfield and Lebanon, where there is a much greater Catholic presence,” says the archbishop. “That is also bourbon territory.
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