Loquacious and quick with a smile and a joke, the newly installed Bishop Mullen at one time nearly discounted the idea of ever becoming a Benedictine monk, mainly because it seemed to him that the contemplative life wasn’t social enough.
“I said, ‘No, I’m not interested,’ and my exact words were, ‘You all get up too early in the morning and you don’t talk enough for me,’” Bishop Mullen told EWTN News, his voice echoing in the cavernous Gothic interior of Belleville’s imposing Cathedral of St. Peter a few days before his May 1 episcopal ordination.
But if one thing has marked Bishop Mullen’s life, it’s an openness to accepting challenging invitations from authority figures and ultimately thriving in those new roles — including as a monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana for nearly four decades.
This spring, Bishop Mullen received arguably the biggest invitation of his life when Pope Leo XIV, a fellow Illinoisian, appointed him the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, which covers some 11,000, mostly rural square miles at the southern tip of Illinois.
The appointment was an unusual one for a Benedictine, a member of the religious order founded by St. Benedict in the sixth century that is known for rigorous prayer — especially the Liturgy of the Hours — generous hospitality and work. Perhaps in part because they tend to keep quietly to their monasteries, Benedictines don’t become ordinaries — heads of a diocese — very often.
While there are currently a handful of Benedictines currently serving as auxiliary bishops in various U.S. dioceses, Bishop Mullen appears to be the first Benedictine to lead a diocese since Jerome Hanus, who served as bishop of St. Cloud, Minnesota, from 1987 to 1994 and then archbishop of Dubuque, Iowa, from 1995 until 2013. Bishop Mullen’s appointment marks only the third time in the 172-year history of Saint Meinrad Archabbey that one of its monks has been appointed a bishop.
Despite having relatively few U.S. Benedictine bishops to look up to, Bishop Mullen believes that his monastic background will be an asset as an ordinary — and was told as much by the Vatican when he was asked to take on the role.
When Bishop Mullen got the call earlier this spring from Cardinal Christoph Pierre, the Pope’s ambassador at the time, informing him of his appointment, he anxiously asked Cardinal Pierre if he needed to seek his abbot’s permission to accept. Cardinal Pierre reportedly laughed and told him, “You’re subject to the Holy Father now,” but reassured Bishop Mullen that neither he nor Pope Leo were asking him to change who he is.
“He went on to say, ‘Remain a monk. Be a man of community. Be a man of prayer. And be a man of simplicity.’ And then he said, ‘I’m lecturing you and you know better than I, ha-ha-ha,’” Bishop Mullen said, imitating the Frenchman’s manner of speech. “But in a real way, I think he summed up what my responsibility as a monk who becomes a bishop is.”
Vocational Journey
Bishop Mullen’s vocation journey began in the sixth grade, when a religious sister from Chicago visited his grade school at St. Teresa Parish in Salem, Illinois, to drum up vocations. When she asked the young Mullen if he’d ever considered the priesthood, he politely — but emphatically — said, “No.” Nevertheless, the invitation gnawed at him, and he entered the seminary as a freshman in college.
After transferring from St. John Vianney Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, to St. Meinrad College in southern Indiana, he was approached by one of the monks and asked if he’d ever considered becoming one. Once again, Bishop Mullen was skeptical, but the monastery’s commitment to communal prayer and community life — an aspect of living out the faith he acutely missed when he was later assigned to parish ministry and one he hopes to encourage among his priests as bishop — was what turned the decision around for him. Bishop Mullen went on to wear many hats as a monk at St. Meinrad, including various teaching appointments at the seminary and School of Theology.
The new bishop believes that the Rule of St. Benedict he followed as a monastic may also have something to say to the wider culture today. He said he sees parallels between present-day American society and the corrupt Roman culture amid which St. Benedict sought to bring order and stability. In a modern world where so much is uncertain and volatile, there’s a “beautiful attraction” for many young people to monastic life and to the rhythm of prayer and work, he said. He encouraged young people discerning their vocation to consider visiting a monastery or convent.
“So many
communities are struggling with membership. I just keep coming back to
the fact that you cannot tell the story of the Church in the United
States without, especially, the presence of women religious. And so,
figuring out why young women and young men are not coming and welcoming
them in a new way, I think, is of extreme importance in the life of the
Church for our future,” he said.
Bishop Mullen’s abbot at Saint
Meinrad, though sad to see him go, is confident that his Benedictine
formation will serve him well as a bishop.
“We are of course honored that our Holy Father has chosen one of our own to this important position of leadership and service for our Church,” said Archabbot Kurt Stasiak in a statement to the Register. “Bishop Godfrey certainly served us well and we’re confident that our Church will continue to benefit from his prayer and work in this new office.”
A Homecoming
Despite spending most of his life as a monk in neighboring Indiana, Bishop Mullen is actually a native of the diocese he now leads. He has been back in Belleville for the past several years serving as rector of the cathedral and stepped in as diocesan administrator after the appointment of former Bishop Michael McGovern as archbishop of Omaha, Nebraska.
“These are people that I’ve known since I was 9 months old. These are people whose relationship with Christ has fascinated me since I was a little boy,” Bishop Mullen mused.
Kathleen Hunt, a social-media specialist for the Diocese of Belleville who was born and raised in the diocese, said it’s a big deal for the people of Belleville to have a bishop who is homegrown, and she anticipates that fact will help him to respond quickly and pastorally to the diocese’s needs.
“I feel like it was a gift to have a bishop who didn’t come to us, but he’s from us. He wasn’t just sent from a different city, and I love that. He’s one of us,” Hunt told the Register.
This verdant land between the Mississippi, Ohio and Wabash Rivers has a rich Catholic history. It was nearly 300 years ago, well before the founding of the nation, when French missionaries such as Father Jacques Marquette first brought the Catholic faith to this region, even christening the Mississippi the “River of the Immaculate Conception.”
Today, the diocese’s 99 parishes are spread out across a large area, and its priests — there are only 40 diocesan — are spread thin. It’s a mission diocese, meaning it is not capable of sustaining itself financially and must rely on support from the national bishops’ conference. The diocese has six seminarians this year, up from five in 2025.
Stewardship, the Catholic idea of putting one’s time, talent and treasure to help build up the Church, is likely to be a major theme of Bishop Mullen’s leadership. A national speaker on the topic, he believes that a spirit of hospitality — a hallmark of Benedictine spirituality — is vital for building a culture of stewardship in a parish or diocese.
“It seems to me that we have a lot to gain from welcoming other talented, gifted people that Christ can work through for the good of building the Kingdom,” Bishop Mullen said.
Overcoming the ‘Liturgy Wars’
In submitting himself to the authority of his monastic order, Bishop Mullen said he has learned the importance of sacrificing one’s personal preferences for the sake of the common good — a posture he believes more Catholics would do well to develop.
Referring to the quintessentially American idea of “rugged individualism,” Bishop Mullen commented, “Frankly, I don’t know how the Church or the liturgy survives that mentality.”
“Monastic life — and especially the Rule — they give us some clear boundaries in which we live our lives. And some people don’t like boundaries ... we have to fight the idea that personal preference wins out,” he said, referring to the kinds of disputes that have arisen among Catholics regarding the celebration of the Mass and other aspects of Catholic liturgy — sometimes called the “liturgy wars.”
Bishop Mullen holds a doctoral degree in liturgical studies from The Catholic University of America, and his dissertation focused on the importance of fostering lay participation.
“It is a heartbreak to me to hear good music and watch people stand there with their mouths closed, completely disengaged ... we’re not conscious of the vibe that we’re giving off to people when we walk into church,” Bishop Mullen lamented.
“I think, above all, the key for us is to recognize the transcendence of the liturgy, to recognize the presence of Christ in the liturgy, to welcome him, to long for him,” he said.
Bishop Mullen said his top priority is to “make sure that people know the centrality of the faith in their own lives … to help them recognize that even when life is difficult, Christ is the one who is walking with them.”
The bishop said, “Loving him and following him and embracing his way — that is who we are and what we’re about.”