David Francis Hickey, S.J. (December 3, 1882 – August 24, 1973) was an American-born

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He served as the

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

and then the first Bishop of Belize, from 1948 to 1957.

Early life

Born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, on December 3, 1882, David Hickey was ordained a priest for the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

(Jesuits) on June 27, 1917. He came to the

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

in 1926 and served as principal at St. John’s College,

pastor A pastor (abbreviated to "Ps","Pr", "Pstr.", "Ptr." or "Psa" (both singular), or "Ps" (plural)) is the leader of a Christianity, Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutherani ...

of the

Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

, Jesuit superior, and

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

. While Jesuit superior he fostered group action to attain economic security through education and Catholic social action. He attended the first Mission Institute in St. Louis that offered an intensive study of

credit union A credit union is a member-owned nonprofit organization, nonprofit cooperative financial institution. They may offer financial services equivalent to those of commercial banks, such as share accounts (savings accounts), share draft accounts (che ...

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...

s, and rural life programs. As Mission superior he encouraged Frs. Marion M. Ganey and Henry Sutti in their foundational work with credit unions and cooperatives in Belize.

Titular bishop

On June 10, 1948,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

appointed Hickey as

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

of ''Bonitza'' and Vicar Apostolic of Belize (

British Honduras British Honduras was a Crown colony on the east coast of Central America — specifically located on the southern edge of the Yucatan Peninsula from 1783 to 1964, then a self-governing colony — renamed Belize from June 1973

). He was consecrated a bishop by Archbishop

Joseph Ritter Joseph Elmer Ritter (July 20, 1892 – June 10, 1967) was an American Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of St. Louis from 1946 until his death in 1967. He was created a cardinal in 1961. He previously served as auxiliary bishop (1933� ...

on September 21, 1948, with principal co-consecrators William McCarty of

Rapid City Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek, where the settlement developed. It is the second-mo ...

and Edward Daly of

Des Moines Des Moines is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Iowa, most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is the county seat of Polk County, Iowa, Polk County with parts extending into Warren County, Iowa, Wa ...

. Hickey presided over a vicariate where, in 1949, 35,263 of 59,220 inhabitants (60%) were Catholic. There were 9 parishes and 109 mission stations, 28 priests of which 24 were Jesuits, and 96

religious Sisters A religious sister (abbreviated: Sr.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to prayer and lab ...

. Sixty-three schools run by the Catholic church had a total of 7,039 students. Besides the usual circuit of confirming the faithful and the construction of churches and schools, he fostered the spread of the credit union and cooperative movement which became an

ecumenical Ecumenism ( ; alternatively spelled oecumenism)also called interdenominationalism, or ecumenicalismis the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships ...

venture in Belize and beyond. In the

Holy Year A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a jubilee year is mentioned as occurring every 50th year (after 49 years, 7x7, as per Leviticus 25:8) during which slaves and prisoners would ...

1950 Hickey encouraged Crusades of Prayer that injected new life into “the cooperative movement, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the

Boy Scouts Boy Scouts or Boy Scout may refer to: * Members, sections or organisations in the Scouting Movement ** Scout (Scouting), a boy or a girl participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouting America, formerly known as Boy Scouts of America ...

, and into the various educational activities.”Castillo, F. (Sept. 1951). “Colony on Crusade.” ''Jesuit Missions'', 10f.

Diocese

Bishop Hickey saw toward the end of his episcopacy the raising of Belize from vicariate status to that of a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

. It would no longer be a mission church under patronage of the

Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation (Roman Curia), congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for Catholic missions, missionary work and related activities. It is also kn ...

but became a diocese with its own bishop. For the occasion of Hickey’s installation as first Bishop of Belize on February 29, 1956, papal

nuncio An apostolic nuncio (; also known as a papal nuncio or simply as a nuncio) is an ecclesiastical diplomat, serving as an envoy or a permanent diplomatic representative of the Holy See to a state or to an international organization. A nuncio is ...

Archbishop

Luigi Raimondi Luigi Raimondi (25 October 1912 – 24 June 1975) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints from his elevation to the cardinalate by Pope Paul VI in 1973 until hi ...

visited Belize. The following year, at seventy-four, Hickey submitted his resignation and it was accepted effective July 13, 1957. On March 13, 1958, Robert Louis Hodapp, SJ, was named his successor and second Bishop of Belize.

References

*Woods, Charles M. Sr., et al. ''Years of Grace: The History of Roman Catholic Evangelization in Belize: 1524-2014''. (Belize: Roman Catholic Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan, 2015). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hickey, David Francis 1882 births 1973 deaths Clergy from St. Louis 19th-century American Jesuits 20th-century American Jesuits Jesuit bishops American Roman Catholic missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Belize 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Belize 20th-century American Roman Catholic titular bishops Belizean Jesuits American expatriates in Belize Roman Catholic bishops of Belize City–Belmopan