ST. PAUL – Bishop Gary Franken is the St. Paul Diocese’s new bishop after his Episcopal Ordination took place on Dec. 12 at the St. Paul Cathedral. Franken had a long road to walk before taking on his new role as Bishop.
In a bright room illuminated with sunlight through an array of coloured windows at the clergy house in St. Paul, Bishop Franken knelt on the ground as he looked toward a symbol which represents the crucifixion of Jesus.
In another room, he shares a glimpse of his past. Sitting comfortably on a chair, he jokes about the voice recording device before him, not liking the sound of his own voice, while also laughing heartily.
Growing up
Franken is the child of Dutch immigrants who were married in Vancouver.
“All their siblings, and hence all my relatives, are back in the Netherlands,” says Franken. “Of course, succeeding generations have moved beyond the Netherlands now.”
While growing up, the church was an important part of Franken’s family life.
When he was young, his family went through many things, both challenging and sad, including when his younger brother passed away when he was about five years old.
“So, faith obviously became all more important,” says Franken. “Turning to God for hope, understanding, and strengthened direction.”
When he was in elementary school, the idea of becoming a priest came to mind. He clarified it was not a Catholic elementary school, but there was a priest in his life he instinctively looked up to.
“I was an altar server, and he knew our names,” says Franken, recalling when he told himself, “I could be like him.”
Seminary
Franken went on to attend a Catholic High School in Burnaby, B.C., before going to St. Peter’s Seminary in London, Ont. He was just 17 years old at the time.
He then decided to leave the seminary after two years to take a break and “do some growing up outside the seminary,” choosing a different path for a time.
Franken found himself living in L’Arche, a community designed to help people suffering from mental disabilities live normal lives. “God was very much behind it all,” he says. “It was a very informative experience."
The community was Christian and Catholic-inspired, according to Franken, which helped him grow.
“It was a place where you can really just be human with one another.”
He returned to the seminary “with a deeper understanding of the call to priesthood in terms of service,” he says. Ultimately, he accepted the call to celibacy, which is part of the Catholic priesthood.
Ordination as priest
Franken was ordained as a priest in 1989 and went on to gain varied experiences through parish life in the greater Vancouver area. His experiences include becoming a pastor of a small parish to working as a Vicar General in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.
Then, in September of this year, he was appointed by His Holiness Pope Francis to the Diocese of St. Paul, following the retirement of Bishop Emeritus Paul Terrio.
The Diocese of St. Paul includes 38 priests, 12 permanent deacons, 38 parishes and missions, and a Catholic population of 107,278. The region stretches north to Fort McMurray, east to Cold Lake, south to Elk Point, and west to include the communities of Whitecourt and Morinville, along with numerous communities in between.
RELATED: Bishop Paul Terrio retires but plans to settle in St. Paul
Appointment as bishop
Being appointed as Bishop is “very much an expression of the Holy Spirit, [of] God, working in the Church,” says Franken. Priests nominated as bishops have the right to say no, and those who do say no remain anonymous.
After having “some time in prayer, some discernment, and checking with my own spiritual director,” Franken decided to take the leap and move to St. Paul to take on the new role.
When asked what prompted Franken to his decision, with the option to safely refuse, Franken says “there were definitely reasons to say no,” like being the only adult child of his parents in their 90s in the Vancouver area. His two other sisters live in Ontario and Europe.
Before his parents moved to residential care, Franken says he was their only, real support during the COVID-19 pandemic. So, being away from his parents “was a concern,” but “they are properly cared for.”
He adds, “I never thought of myself as someone cut out for this kind of role,” but with a lot of help and support, “I trust that all will be well.”
Ultimately, Franken’s reason for saying yes is, “if this is what God wishes – I trust that God will also make it work... With my life, faith, and trust in God, I’m not going to stop now.”
Looking to the future
Franken says moving to a rural area should not be a challenge, having experience working at his godparent’s dairy farm in British Columbia when he was in high school.
“So, being in the country, I don’t expect anything difficult in that sense at all – I’m quite happy.”
He notes that creating relationships with the local Indigenous community are “a forefront for me here.”
Franken hopes to travel throughout the Diocese of St. Paul in the next several months, creating those relationships and “hearing some stories, and then learn from there how to proceed.”
When asked for comments about the increasingly secularization of people, which Bishop Emeritus Paul Terrio recently described as the dissociation of people from their religious heritage and background, Franken affirms it applies everywhere.
“So, yes, there is a real opportunity here to encourage people in the beauty of the truth of our relationship with God... and I look forward to that,” says Franken.
While there is a sense of being overwhelmed with his new position as bishop, Franken is excited.
“Bishop Paul Terrio has a great staff here at the pastoral centre, so I’m being very kindly and expertly eased into things,” he says. And “[Terrio] is going to be around as well.”
