Monsignor Mike Boulette, a 66 year old parish priest from Kerrville, today was selected by Pope Francis to be the next Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, News Radio 1200 WOAI reprots.
Msgr. Boulette, who is set to be formally ordained as a Bishop in March, is a St. Mary’s University graduate and served as priest at St. Ann’s Parish in San Antonio, and once service as the Chaplain to Pope John Paul II.
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller says Boulette is the perfect choice to the the number two man in the Archdiocese. “The priests and the people of the Hill Country, were he has spent many years in ministry love him,” The Archbishop said. “I can tell them without question, he loves you too.”
Boulette was able to have his 95 year old mother, Pat Boulette, on hand for the announcement, and he embraced her to the cheers of friends and his fellow priests at the Chancellery.
He joked about getting the call from the Papal Nuncio, Pope Francis’ representative in the U.S. “He asked me in the most congenial, most friendly way, if I knew why he was calling,” Boulette joked. “I replied that I didn’t know anything I had done wrong lately to make him call.”
Msgr. Boulette said he accepted the duty after Pope Francis’ movingly described the duties of a Bishop. “Seek grace for you and for your people, stay close to the flock so you even smell like sheep, love as a father and a brother, and love the poor and the defenseless, the unborn, the migrants, the imprisoned and the infirm.”
WOAI PHOTO