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CHARLOTTE — Bishop Emeritus Joseph Howze of Biloxi, Miss., was welcomed home to Charlotte recently when he visited Our Lady of Consolation Church, which had been his first assignment as a new priest in the late 1950s, and St. Vincent de Paul Church.

Pictured with him is OLC's Deacon Charles Knight; Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon, whom Bishop Emeritus Howze had baptized; Joseph Hunt; OLC's current pastor, Capuchin Franciscan Father Martin Schratz; and Floyd Howze. (photo provided by Father Martin Schratz)

Bishop Emeritus Howze, now 88, celebrated Mass on Jan. 1 at Our Lady of Consolation Church, where so many parishioners remembered him and where he was presented with a gift from the City of Charlotte.

On Dec. 31, Bishop Howze officiated a wedding of some of his friends from Biloxi at St. Vincent de Paul Church. He had last preached at St. Vincent de Paul Church in 1982 at a Mass celebrating the 10th anniversary of the episcopal ordination of his good friend, Bishop Michael J. Begley – the first bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte.

Bishop Howze visits with Father Mark Lawlor, pastor, at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte. (photo provided by Kevin Murray)Bishop Joseph L. Howze, the retired first bishop of the Diocese of Biloxi, was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Raleigh in 1959. When the Diocese of Charlotte was carved out of the Raleigh diocese in 1972, then Father Howze was serving as the pastor of the Parish (now Basilica) of St. Lawrence in Asheville. Soon after, he was sent to the Diocese of Biloxi to become its first bishop.

Bishop Howze was actually the first priest of the Diocese of Charlotte to become a bishop, as Bishop Begley was a priest of the Diocese of Raleigh when he became the first bishop of Charlotte.

Also during his stay, Bishop Howze also met with Charlotte Bishop Peter J. Jugis.

— Father Martin Schratz, OFM Cap., and Father Mark Lawlor