Pope Leo appoints 10th bishop of the Diocese of Belleville
The Very Rev. Godfrey Mullen, the Benedictine monk who has been serving as the “diocesan administrator” for the Belleville Diocese and as rector of the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville, will be installed as the new bishop for the diocese on May 1, according to an appointment by Pope Leo XIV announced Friday by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
It was Mullen who conducted a news conference in his home parish Friday morning to announce locally his new job as the 10th bishop in the history of the Belleville Diocese.
After his ordination on May 1, Mullen said he would prefer to be known as “Bishop Godfrey” instead of the common practice of priests using their last name when they are appointed a bishop.
Mullen, 60, grew up in Salem so he has the assignment of leading his home diocese where there are 127,000 Catholics and 99 parishes. He noted that while was raised in Salem in the Belleville Diocese, he was born in Alton in the Springfield Diocese, and not Salem as stated in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ announcement.
Mullen received the news of Pope Leo’s decision last Saturday from Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the United States.
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Mullen said he told Pierre, “I have accepted many assignments from abbots and bishops under whom I have served and have nearly always grown to love those assignments, I trust that pattern will continue,” Mullen said in a statement read during the news conference, which was livestreamed on the St. Peter’s Facebook page.
Cardinal Blase J. Cupich of the Archdiocese of Chicago had been expected to attend the news conference to announce Mullen’s appointment but his flight to St. Louis was canceled Friday morning because of 60 mph winds in Chicago, Mullen said.
Mullen added that the combination of the flight cancellation and his position as diocesan administrator created “a little bit of an odd situation” which resulted in Mullen reading the statement that Cupich would have read.
“So I get to, I guess, introduce myself,” he said at the beginning of the news conference.
Mullen has been the diocesan administrator since May 9 in Belleville after Archbishop Michael McGovern was appointed the sixth archbishop of the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, by the late Pope Francis on March 31, 2025.
Mullen has been a Benedictine monk of St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana since the late 1980s.
Mullen’s family moved to Salem when he was 9 months old. “As a son of this diocese since I was 9 months old, I have always been fascinated by the way Christ is present in his wonderful people in Southern Illinois,” Mullen said in his opening statement. “With my parents being intimately involved in the work of Saint Theresa of Avila Parish in Salem, I grew up knowing Diocesan Priests and Precious Blood and Felician Sisters.”
Mullen said it is “uncommon” that a diocesan administrator is appointed bishop of the same diocese and he accepts his new assignment as “God’s plan.” “In the immigrant, the stranger, the incarcerated, the mentally ill, the alienated, the hungry, the homeless, the elderly and the young, and from East St. Louis to Mount Carmel, from Kinmundy to Cairo, in every place here, we can find Christ if we look for him with faith and hope, with the genuine charity that is rightly always our way of life,” he said.
In a question and answer session after his opening statement, Mullen addressed the issue of whether he had any “trepidation” of becoming bishop of his home diocese.
Mullen said his experience gives him an insight into the issues facing the diocese but acknowledged that it could limit his vision so he has been listening to the opinions of others.
“And what I have found is that embracing the input of many people, while it’s a little bit difficult sometimes to bring all that together to a way forward, at the same time it has been for me a wonderfully rejuvenating experience,” he said.
“There is trepidation but it has far less to do with being a native son of the diocese and far more to do with the recognition that helping people to Heaven is my job now and not just 1,250 people at the Cathedral of St. Peter but all 127,000 plus in the Diocese of Belleville.”
Career highlights
Mullen, who was born on Jan. 22, 1966, studied at St. Meinrad College in Indiana where he received a bachelor’s degree in history in 1988, a master’s degree in theology in 1991 and a master of divinity in 1994, according to a news release from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“He received a Ph.D. in liturgical studies from The Catholic University of America (2003). Father Mullen made his solemn monastic profession with the Order of Saint Benedict on August 15, 1992, and he was ordained to the priesthood on June 5, 1994,” the news release states.
“Bishop-elect Mullen’s pastoral assignments include: professor of liturgy at St. Meinrad College in Indiana; rector of St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville, Indiana; rector of Saint Peter Cathedral in Belleville, Illinois; pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish, and of Queen of Peace parish in Belleville, Illinois.”
He also has served as vicar general of the Diocese of Belleville.
Mullen has been the rector at St. Peter since 2022 and addressed parishioners who were wondering “what’s next” by saying he will keep this post for the “time being.”
“My intention at this time, is that with the help of a dedicated senior associate who is simply to help with Masses and confessions that for the time being, I would remain as rector of the Cathedral,” he said.
After acknowledging applause from the crowd, Mullen added with a laugh, “I only know that I can do that because there is a bishop in Alaska that has done that.”
Sense of humor
Mullen showed his sense of humor a number of times during his news conference.
As Mullen read a statement that Pope Leo released at noon Friday in Rome, which was 6 a.m. Central time, Mullen noted that the announcement had the incorrect location of his birth. Pope Leo, a native of Illinois like Mullen, had said in his statement that Mullen was born in Salem.
“Far be it from me to correct the Holy See but I was actually born in Alton, Illinois, and moved to Salem when I was 9 months old,” he said.
When Mullen was taking questions from the audience inside the Cathedral, a priest said he didn’t have a question but a “suggestion.”
Mullen drew laughter from the crowd with his quick reply of, “Oh good.”
The priest said he once served under a bishop who said he didn’t have friends and didn’t need any. The questioner suggested that Mullen keep his friends.
Mullen replied “absolutely.”
“I do have many friends and they have been a rock solid support for the last 60 years,” Mullen said.
“I’m grateful for the friendships that I have had and I can say with all honesty that my friends and my family and my community at St. Meinrad have always been the rock that has supported me.”
Reaction from church leaders
Cupich offered his congratulations to Mullen.
“He has distinguished himself as a college professor, an able administrator and a proven pastor, serving the People of God and the Church with humility and devotion for more than 30 years,” Cupich said in a statement. “We are confident he will be a strong and compassionate leader for the Belleville diocese, and we look forward to working with him.”
McGovern, who served as Belleville’s bishop from 2020 to 2025, also supported Mullen’s appointment.
“Father Godfrey’s years of priestly ministry, prayerfulness, compassion, intelligence and humor will be great assets as he shepherds the people of southern Illinois into the future, a future filled with hope,” McGovern said in a statement.
“I ask you to join me in praying God’s abundant blessings upon Bishop-elect Godfrey Mullen and the clergy and people of the Diocese of Belleville.”
Past bishops of Belleville
- John Janssen (1887–1913)
- Henry J. Althoff (1914–1947)
- Albert Rudolph Zuroweste (1948–1976)
- William Michael Cosgrove (1976–1981)
- John Nicholas Wurm (1981–1984)
- James Patrick Keleher (1984–1993), appointed Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas
- Wilton Daniel Gregory (1994–2005), appointed Archbishop of Atlanta
- Edward Kenneth Braxton (2005–2020)
- Michael McGovern (2020–2025), appointed Archbishop of Omaha
- Godfrey Mullen (2026-)
This story was originally published March 13, 2026 at 10:40 AM.
