Bernard Joseph Topel

Bernard Joseph Topel (born March 31, 1903 in Bozeman , Montana , † October 22, 1986 in Spokane , Washington ) was an American Roman Catholic clergyman. Topel was bishop of the Diocese of Spokane .

Life

Bernard Topel was born the fourth child of Henry Albert and Mary Pauline Topel. His father came from East Prussia , his mother was a native Swiss . After elementary school in Bozeman, Topel graduated from St. Charles High School in Helena . Then he began to study at Carroll College , also in Helena. As a young man he went to Canada , where he studied theology at the Grand Séminaire de Montréal in Montreal . Most recently he was a student at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC In 1927, he received his Masters in Education . He was ordained a priest on June 7, 1927 .

Immediately thereafter, Topel received his Masters in Mathematics from Harvard University and his PhD from the University of Notre Dame . Between 1934 and 1937 he served as a missionary in Toston and Wolf Creek . He then went back to Notre Dame , where he taught mathematics until 1939. In Montana, where he returned in 1939, he found employment as a professor of mathematics and physics at Mount St. Charles College .

Without ever having assumed responsibility for a community, Topel was on August 9, 1955 by Pope Pius XII. appointed coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Spokane and titular bishop of Binda . He was ordained episcopal on September 21, 1955 by Bishop Joseph Michael Gilmore and his co-consecrators, Bishops Joseph Patrick Dougherty and Joseph Clement Willging . Just four days later, on September 25, 1955, Charles Daniel White , the incumbent bishop, died, so that Topel now had to take his bishopric.

In 1958, Bishop Topel led a pilgrimage to Europe , which also took him to Lourdes on the 100th anniversary of the apparitions of Mary . In 1960 he initiated a mission program of the Maryknoll Missionary Order to Guatemala . Between 1962 and 1965 it took place in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council .

Topel was a bishop who lived a simple lifestyle. So he moved into a simple apartment, had neither heating nor telephone, and got his food from his own garden. He sold his crook as well as the pectoral and donated the money to the poor.

On the other hand, Topel was a bishopric who covered up sexual abuse by priests. In 1974 the case of the priest Patrick O'Donnell became known, who allegedly sexually abused boys. Topel is said to have only transferred O'Donnell to another parish when he found out about the rumors. This is said to have passed on to other boys.

On April 11, 1978 Topel submitted to Pope Paul VI. submitted his resignation, which was granted. Until the inauguration of his successor, Lawrence Harold Welsh , on December 14, 1978, he directed his diocese as Apostolic Administrator .

Topel died in October 1986 at the age of 83 in a retirement home in Spokane.

Web links

• Entry on Bernard Joseph Topel on catholic-hierarchy.org

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles Daniel White	Bishop of Spokane 1955–1978	Lawrence Harold Welsh