Welcome back to Around the House! In our May/June issue, we have a special treat for all of you, our readers—an exclusive interview with Bishop Godfrey Mullen, OSB, monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey and currently the 10th bishop of the Diocese of Belleville, Illinois! We will also offer mini-biographies of two Saint Meinrad monks who answered the call to be bishops—Bishop Martin Marty, OSB, first abbot of Saint Meinrad, who served as a missionary bishop in the Dakota Territory and then bishop of St. Cloud, MN; and Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, OSB, former rector of our seminary, who was the bishop of Memphis, TN, and then archbishop of Indianapolis.
When each of us heard the news on March 13, 2026, we rejoiced with our confrere over his appointment … though, frankly, none of us were that surprised. On that day, Pope Leo XIV appointed then-Father Godfrey the bishop of the Belleville diocese, of which Bishop-elect Godfrey had been serving as the diocesan administrator for slightly less than a year. Pope Leo’s appointment confirms for us that God is fostering and cultivating at Saint Meinrad Archabbey worthy characteristics and traits that can have positive effects on the Church as a whole. [Correspondent’s note: I interviewed Mullen in April when he was still “Bishop-elect”; for the sake of simplicity, I refer to him as “Bishop Godfrey” throughout most of the article.]
To prepare for his new ministry, Bishop Godfrey came home to Saint Meinrad at the beginning of April for a five-day private retreat. “It’s been a wonderful break to be back here at home,” Bishop Godfrey stated. As many of our readers know, he has been ministering away from Saint Meinrad Archabbey for 14 years. “When I was living here on a regular basis, I don’t think I ever really paid attention to how much support comes from communal prayer.” Because of the demands of parish life, Bishop Godfrey had only a few opportunities to come home to the Hill each year to enjoy the regularity of the monastic horarium, the community’s schedule of prayer, work, and leisure. “That has just been a really wonderful thing! I don’t have to figure out when I’m going to make that all work. I just have to show up.”
Bishop Godfrey loves being a monk, though he’s had to live the monastic life away from the cloister for well over a decade. He professed simple vows as a monk of Saint Meinrad Archabbey in 1989, was ordained a deacon in 1993 and a priest the following year. Within the cloister, he fulfilled assignments as assistant choir master, choir master, assistant refectorian, and assistant house prefect. In 2003, he was awarded a doctorate in liturgical studies from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and he taught in our seminary. For four years beginning in 2008, Bishop Godfrey served as vice rector of our Seminary and School of Theology. In 2012, he went to St. Mary’s Parish in Huntingburg, IN, to be its pastor but was asked to become the rector of St. Benedict’s Cathedral in Evansville, IN, one year later. Since 2021, he has been serving in the Belleville diocese, first as rector of the St. Peter’s Cathedral and pastor of two smaller parishes, and then as diocesan administrator since May 2025.
Bishop Godfrey discussed how his experiences have prepared him for his new episcopal ministry, and how he would like to implement the message he believes God is calling him to share with the people of southern Illinois, of whom he’s a native son. “One of the things I’m most looking forward to would be the spread of stewardship in our diocese.” Stewardship—sharing one’s time, talent, and treasure with his or her parish community—has four pillars: hospitality, prayer, formation, and service. “If those aren’t four pillars from The Rule, I don't know what is!” He continued, “Stewardship makes so much sense to me because it is very Benedictine in its view of the world, and also in the view of what our call is.”
And what is that call? Answering God’s call requires all the faithful to ask tough, challenging questions. “What are we good at? How do we capitalize on [what we’re good at] for building the Kingdom? Are we building the Kingdom or not?” Addressing the concerns surrounding parish consolidations and closings is of primary importance to Bishop Godfrey. “One of the things that I intend to do fairly quickly is help our parishes understand that this obsessive concern about which parishes are going to be closed: we need to get beyond that.” Instead of confronting a problem, Bishop Godfrey’s tack is to encounter and work through an issue. “We can take the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t such a bad thing.’”
Stewardship is one way to remedy the concerns of the people of the Belleville diocese. Bishop Godfrey instituted stewardship in his previous assignments, and he and his parishioners reaped much fruit. “Not only in terms of prayer commitments, but also their stewardship of talent has just been an incredible change. And the stretch of a treasure, there’s no doubt that has changed tremendously.”
While we did not have time during our interview to answer all those questions (or solve the world’s problems), Bishop Godfrey tied together his thoughts in a hopeful spirit. “My hope is to shift the narrative in the diocese from one of fear to one of vocation as disciples … Yeah, I’m jazzed!”
Toward the end of our interview, Bishop Godfrey and I wrapped up our discussion talking about hidden connections. I mentioned how the people of New Hellimer, IL, are under his pastoral care. He imparted his paternal blessing on the people. [New Hellimer, if you recall, is the name of my HO scale train layout.]
After our interview, Bishop Godfrey asked to conduct research in the archive. He wished to see old letters exchanged between Abbot Fintan Mundwiler, OSB, second abbot of Saint Meinrad, and then-Father Athanasius Schmitt, OSB, who was assigned to St. Peter’s, Belleville, and then was elected third abbot of Saint Meinrad in 1898. It may surprise our readers to discover that a few monk-priests of Saint Meinrad were assigned to St. Peter’s Church, Belleville, IL, in the nineteenth century, before Belleville became a diocese. “That connection has been very important for me.”
Bishop Godfrey also has a special connection with two monks of Saint Meinrad who served the Church as bishops: Abbot & Bishop Martin Marty, OSB, and Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, OSB.
Martin Marty was born in the Swiss canton of Schwyz on January 12, 1834. According to the Necrology [book of deceased monks] of Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Marty professed his solemn vows as a monk of Einsiedeln Abbey in 1855 and was ordained a priest in 1856. After his ordination, he taught at Einsiedeln’s school. At the tender age of 26, though, Abbot Henry Schmid, OSB, of Einsiedeln sent Marty and another monk—Fintan Mundwiler, OSB, second abbot of Saint Meinrad—to the United States to save the Indiana foundation from closing.
Marty became prior of Saint Meinrad Priory in 1865, laboring to right the community’s finances and refocus their mission away from parish ministry and back to seminary education. In 1870, Blessed Pope Pius IX appointed Marty the first abbot of Saint Meinrad Abbey when the monks voted in favor of becoming independent of their Swiss motherhouse. Marty’s tenure as abbot attracted the attention of Pope Leo XIII, who in 1879 named him vicar apostolic of the Dakota Territory (modern-day North Dakota and South Dakota), and he was consecrated a bishop the next year, subsequently being named bishop of Sioux Falls in 1889. In 1895, Marty became the bishop of St. Cloud, MN, though he died the following year. In 2004, for Saint Meinrad’s sesquicentennial celebration, some of Marty’s remains were buried in our monastic cemetery.
The second Saint Meinrad monk to become a bishop was Daniel Buechlein, OSB, who was born in Jasper, IN, on April 20, 1938. Buechlein entered Saint Meinrad’s high school seminary in 1952. He was invested as a Benedictine novice in 1958 and professed simple vows in 1959. In 1964, he was ordained to the priesthood. Buechlein earned an STL from Sant’Anselmo, Rome, in 1966 and returned to Saint Meinrad to teach in our seminary.
Like his monastic confrere, Bishop Godfrey, Buechlein was a local—Jasper is a 25-minute drive north of the Hill—and was uniquely qualified to form the next generation of priests. He knew the needs and concerns that faced both the local Church and the global Church. He wrote widely on seminary curricula and commented on combining the timeless wisdom of spiritual direction with the contemporary theories of psychotherapeutics. Beginning in 1972, Buechlein served as rector of our seminary. His leadership and pastoral insights were factors that led to his appointment in 1987 as the bishop of Memphis, TN. Five years later, Pope Saint John Paul II appointed Buechlein the next archbishop of Indianapolis, a post he held until his resignation in 2011. He returned home in 2011 and resided in our Infirmary until his death on January 25, 2018.
It’s not every day that one of your brother monks is called to serve the Church as a bishop. Even two months after the announcement of Bishop Godfrey’s appointment, and a mere two weeks since his installation and ordination in Belleville, we’re still finding extra prayer cards and worship aids pop up around the house—on the table next to the mailboxes, in the refectory, in the computer lab ... and that’s just the cloister! Yet, these “souvenirs” remind us of the gifts with which God continues to bless us here at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, and how we’re called to share those gifts with the Church and the world.
Bishop Godfrey, we assure you of our prayers as you take up your episcopal ministry. Ad multos annos!
Br. Stanley, OSB
Correspondent
Around the House
To see more photos from Bishop Godfrey's ordination, visit our SmugMug page.