Francis Janssens

Francis Janssens was born on October 17, 1843, in Tilburg, North Brabant in the Netherlands to Cornelius John and Josephine Anne (née Dams) Janssens.[1] He entered the seminary of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1856. In 1866, Janssens went to the American College at Louvain, Belgium, planning to ultimately do mission work in the United States.[2]

Janssens was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Richmond on December 21, 1867.[3] Arriving at Richmond, Virginia, in September 1868, he was appointed rector of the cathedral in 1870 and served as vicar general under Bishops James Gibbons and John Joseph Keane.[2]

On April 7, 1881, Janssens was appointed the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Natchez, by Pope Leo XIII.[3] He received his episcopal consecration on May 1, 1881, from Archbishop James Gibbons, with Bishops Thomas Becker and John Keane serving as co-consecrators.[3] During his tenure, Janssens completed construction on the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson, Mississippi, which had commenced forty years earlier.[2]

Janssens was appointed by Leo XIII as the fourth archbishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans on August 7, 1888; he was installed on September 16, 1888.[3] During his tenure, Janssens convened the fifth Archdiocesan Synod in May 1889, founded more than twenty-five new parochial schools, dedicated a new preparatory seminary at Gessen, Louisiana, in September 1891, and established the Catholic Institute for Deaf and Dumb at Chinchuba, Louisiana, in 1890.[1] Janssens significantly reduced the immense debt incurred by Archbishop Napoléon-Joseph Perché; continuing the work of his immediate predecessor Archbishop Francis Xavier Leray, he reduced it from $324,759 to about $130,000.[2]

Janssens' tenure also spanned the period of hardening racial divisions between whites and African-Americans.[4] He once said, "There is nothing in my administration of the Diocese that worries me more than our colored people; to see what is done by the Protestants to capture them and how often they succeed."[5] Believing that a separate parish would keep blacks within the Catholic Church and facilitate black leadership just as it had for Irish and German immigrants, Janssens established St. Katharine's Church[6] in 1895 as the first parish designated for black Catholics; attendance, however, was optional.[4] It was, however, his expressed hope "that anyone might occupy any pew or any seat anywhere in the church."[5]

Janssens died aboard the steamer Creole, bound for New York City, aged 53.[2] He is buried at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans.[1]