Fr. Vetter Named Bishop

November 4, 2019

Father Austin A. Vetter was appointed by Pope Francis on Oct. 8 as the Bishop of the Diocese of Helena, the Catholic diocese for western Montana.
 
Father Vetter is only the second diocesan priest to be named bishop — the first native of the Diocese of Bismarck. The other was Bishop Sylvester Treinen, originally from Minnesota, who was ordained a priest of the Bismarck Diocese in 1946 and served here until being named Bishop of Boise, Idaho in 1962.
 
Bishop Kagan said of Fr. Vetter, “Thank God that he has the courageous faith to say ‘yes’ and be a shepherd of God’s people. He will do very well and he will always be a credit to Christ and our Church and to his home diocese.”
 
Bishop-elect Vetter will be ordained and installed as the Bishop of Helena on Nov. 20, 2019 at the Cathedral of St. Helena. He takes over for the former Helena Bishop George Thomas, who was appointed as the bishop of the Diocese of Las Vegas in February 2018.
 
Bishop-elect Vetter is the 11th bishop of the Helena Diocese established in 1884 that includes 51,922 square miles of western and north central Montana, encompassing 21 counties and parts of two others. The diocese has 57 parishes and 38 missions.
 
First Mass as bishop-elect
 
At his first Mass celebrated as bishop-elect of Helena on Oct. 8, Fr. Vetter said it had been an overwhelming time for him and asked for everyone’s prayers. He told the congregation at the noon Mass at the Cathedral of St. Helena that he’s trying to get used to all the new things that come with being a bishop like wearing the zucchetto and pectoral cross among other things.
 
“I feel at home here. I really do. I already love you,” he said during Mass. “I knew when I crossed the border coming into the Diocese of Helena that this is my home and I don’t regret saying ‘yes’ one bit.”
 
Father Austin Vetter was born in Linton, N.D. on Sept. 13, 1967, the youngest of 12 children of August and Loretta Vetter. After graduation from Linton Public School, he attended North Dakota State University and Cardinal Muench Seminary in Fargo. After receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, he studied at the Pontifical North American College and the University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Bismarck by Bishop John F. Kinney at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck on June 29, 1993.
 
Following ordination, Father Vetter served as parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. He was a religion instructor at St. Mary’s Central High School in Bismarck from 1994-99. He then served as pastor of St. Martin’s in Center, St. Patrick’s in Dickinson and St. Leo the Great in Minot. From 2004-07, Father Vetter was an adjunct faculty member for the Institute of Priestly Formation at Creighton University in Omaha where he taught The Spirituality of the Diocesan Priest.
 
Father Vetter has held various roles in the Diocese of Bismarck including serving on the presbyteral council, priests’ personnel board, vicar for the permanent diaconate, master of ceremonies to the bishop and director of continuing education for clergy.
 
Father Vetter served as Director of Spiritual Formation at the Pontifical North American College in Rome from July 2012 through June 2018. Prior to being named Bishop of the Diocese of Helena, he served as rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Light of Christ Catholic Schools in Bismarck.
 
Preparing for change
 
Bishop-Elect Vetter has returned to Bismarck to plan for the move to Helena. Bishop Kagan has named Fr. Josh Ehli as the new rector of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit as Fr. Vetter's replacement.
 
Change can be difficult and priests are certainly no stranger to it. The Gospel reading at Fr. Vetter’s first Mass at the Cathedral in Helena, on the day of his appointment, told the story of Martha and Mary in which Jesus says to a fretting Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing.”
 
In his homily reflection on this Gospel, Fr. Vetter said, since finding out that he’d been appointed a bishop, he’s asked the Lord to give him what he needs to endure the changes.
 
He told those at Mass, “Let’s give our dear Lord all our anxieties, all the things that we worry about, and just give it to Him. And, then, let Him take it the way He wants to, when He wants to and how He wants to.”
 
—Dakota Catholic Action Staff report