Archbishop Schulte will be laid to rest next week at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans

Funeral arrangements set for Archbishop Schulte

Communications • Tue, Jan 19 2016

 

• Funeral arrangements set for Archbishop Schulte

Four Archbishops of New Orleans in 2009

 

The Funeral Mass for retired Archbishop Francis Bible Schulte will take place on Thursday, January 28 at 2 pm at St. Louis Cathedral. Archbishop Aymond will receive the body at 3 pm on Wednesday, January 27 at Notre Dame Seminary with a wake following there until 8 pm. Visitation will continue at St. Louis Cathedral beginning at 9 am until 1 pm at St. Louis Cathedral on January 28.  Archbishop Schulte died Sunday, January 17, 2016 after several weeks of Hospice Care in his native Philadelphia, where he lived full-time in recent years.
“I think he brought a real fidelity to church teaching,” Archbishop Aymond said of Archbishop Schulte, who was archbishop when Archbishop Aymond was named an auxiliary bishop of New Orleans in 1996 by St. John Paul.
Archbishop Schulte was born Dec. 23, 1926, in Philadelphia. He grew up in Philadelphia as an only child. His father, who ran the family pharmacy, died when he was 11. His mother, Katharine Bible Schulte imbued in him a love for the church.
He was ordained to the priesthood on May 10, 1952, and served from 1960-70 as assistant superintendent of Catholic schools in Philadelphia and then as superintendent from 1970-80.

He was ordained auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia in 1981 and was appointed bishop of Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia in 1985. He was named to succeed New Orleans Archbishop Philip M. Hannan as the 12th archbishop of New Orleans on Dec. 13, 1988 and ministered as Archbishop of New Orleans until one year after Archbishop Alfred Hughes was appointed coadjutor archbishop of New Orleans in 2001. Archbishop Schulte officially retired on Jan. 3, 2002.
“He also brought a sense of pastoral care,” Archbishop Aymond added. “He was very committed to Catholic education since he had been a superintendent in Philadelphia and knew a lot about it. He also helped to stabilize the finances in our archdiocese. He redid the structure of our administrative offices. That was something that was needed, and I thought he did it very well.”
Archbishop Hughes said Archbishop Schulte's biggest contribution to the Archdiocese of New Orleans was "to bring an organizational structure to the archdiocese. He was very consultative, and he introduced consultative bodies as genuine consultative bodies. He developed the cabinet structure. That basic structure I inherited and did very little tweaking of it.
"Archbishop Schulte also was truly committed to Catholic education, especially Catholic school education. That was a significant investment of his priestly life and ministry when he was in Philadelphia, and he brought an appreciation for that to New Orleans and did everything that he could to strengthen the schools."
In his retirement, Archbishop Schulte remained in New Orleans until after Katrina when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and doctors encouraged him to return to Philadelphia for successful radiation treatment.
His last visit to New Orleans was for the 2009 ordination of Archbishop Aymond, at which time a historic photo was taken of the four living archbishops of New Orleans: Archbishops Hannan, Schulte, Hughes and Aymond.
Funeral Arrangements are as follows:

Wednesday, January 27

3:00pm                                  Reception of the body at Notre Dame Seminary
3:30pm – 8:00pm             Wake at Notre Dame Seminary

Thursday, January 28

9:00am – 1:30pm              Wake at St. Louis Cathedral
2:00pm                                 Funeral Mass and Burial at the Cathedral

The funeral Mass will be live streamed via http://nolacatholic.org. Visit the memorial page to send your prayers and condolences as well as share your memories of Archbishop Schulte here.