Msgr. Vincent: A Bible scholar and good-natured

Msgr. Robert G. Vincent, who died Jan. 29 at the age of 83, knew the Bible far better than most, but his erudite nature might have been overshadowed by his good humor and ability to relate easily to people of all ages, Archbishop Gregory Aymond said.

“He took his priestly ministry very seriously,” Archbishop Aymond said at Msgr. Vincent’s funeral Mass Feb. 1 at St. Joan of Arc Church in LaPlace. “He was a good shepherd. He was a man of faith. He also liked to joke a lot – and some of you have been the victims of some of his jokes.”

Msgr. Vincent’s fun-loving side was on display in a 2010 Clarion Herald interview tied to a collection for retired diocesan priests. He said his life as a retired priest still was quite busy, but he enjoyed the extra time he had to visit with neighbors and friends and pray with and for them.

“I live next door to a chef, who brings me all his leftovers,” Msgr. Vincent said. “My AC man is three minutes away, and a nurse lives next to him. The sheriff lives at the end of my street. Best of all, the undertaker lives across the street and has a key to my house. If the light on my porch is not off by 10 in the morning, he can bring the wagon over for me.”

Keeping it lively

Ray Templet, who Msgr. Vincent hired in 1990 as maintenance supervisor for the parish plant, said the pastor used to pepper his deeply researched homilies with lighter moments, in part to keep people’s attention. He found that tactic worked well when he was a Scripture professor at Notre Dame Seminary.

“He told me that when he was teaching in the seminary, everybody’s attention span was about 10 minutes long, so every 10 minutes he would tell a joke,” Templet said.

Anna Weber, the rectory cook for 15 years, said Msgr. Vincent got her attention on her first day of work when he placed a toy mouse on the floor. 

“He had a wonderful sense of humor,” Weber said. “He was so kind and considerate to everybody. You could never do anything wrong in his eyes.”

A native of Fayetteville, N.C., Msgr. Vincent was raised a Baptist and did not discover Catholicism until his late teens.

“I went to the public library and converted myself after studying the history of Christianity in the encyclopedias,” Msgr. Vincent told the Clarion Herald upon his retirement in 2001. “My conclusion was that if there is anything to this Christianity, it’s the Catholic Church. It couldn’t be anything else.

“Jesus said, ‘My church will endure to the end,’ and there was no other church but the Catholic Church for the first 1,500 years. I said, ‘What is this?’ I talked to one of my history professors who was a Methodist minister, and he said, ‘I think you’re on the right track.’ That did it.”

Msgr. Vincent, who was ordained on June 8, 1957, held a licentiate in sacred theology from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a licentiate in scriptural science from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He completed doctoral studies in theology at the University of Ottawa.

Biblical scholar

He taught the Bible and biblical languages at several seminaries, including Notre Dame Seminary. He served as archdiocesan director of religious education, secretary of Christian formation, secretary of the Archdiocesan Liturgical Commission and Permanent Diaconate Committee.

He was parochial vicar at St. Francis Xavier, Metairie, and at St. Pius X and St. Frances Cabrini, New Orleans, until his first pastorate at St. Andrew Church in Amelia.

In 1985, he was named co-pastor of St. Joan of Arc and then became pastor in 1989 upon the death of Father Dennis “Pete” Bergeron, serving until his retirement in 2001. He was named a monsignor in 1999. Msgr. Vincent had to provide comfort to parishioners during several tragedies: the 1999 Mothers’ Day bus accident, the 1988 explosion at the Shell refinery and an automobile accident that killed a mother and two children on their way to school.

“The whole community suffered with them, and that’s the nature of the spirit of the body of Christ,” he said.

Msgr. Vincent also took special pride in his altar servers, who were inducted into their service with a “knighting” ceremony. “He actually had a sword he would use,” Templet said.

Archbishop Aymond said Msgr. Vincent was well prepared for his death, deciding to forgo any additional medical treatment because “it would not ensure the quality of life nor the longevity of life.”

“As he said to me, ‘I preached all my life that Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us in his Father’s kingdom, and I truly believe as a priest and as a disciple that we live this earthly life and then we are called home to the Lord,’”Archbishop Aymond said. “He said to me, ‘I’m kind of looking forward to it, and those around me – many of them – don’t understand.’”

He truly loved LaPlace, a place he compared to his North Carolina hometown as “a modern Mayberry.”

“The people here are really family,” he said. “That’s why it’s called ‘The Place.’ Everybody knows everybody, and everybody cares about everybody. It’s a family experience, and I became part of it.”

Msgr. Vincent was buried in North Carolina.

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].