Gaspard-Joseph Labis Explained

Type:Bishop
Gaspard-Joseph Labis
Diocese:Diocese of Tournai
See:Notre-Dame de Tournai
Appointed:1835
Predecessor:Jean Joseph Delplancq (1829–1834)
Successor:Edmond Dumont (1873–1880)
Birth Date:2 June 1792
Birth Place:Warcoing, Tournaisis, United States of Belgium
Death Place:Tournai, Province of Hainaut, Kingdom of Belgium
Buried:Tournai Cathedral
Previous Post:Professor of Theology at the Grand Séminaire, Tournai
Education:Collège de Tournai
Alma Mater:Grand Séminaire, Tournai
Motto:Fortiter et suaviter

Gaspard-Joseph Labis (1792–1872) was a 19th-century bishop of Tournai.[1]

Life

Labis was born in Warcoing on 2 June 1792. He was educated in Tournai, first at the city's college and then at the major seminary. He completed his theological studies at the seminary of Arras, and went on to teach Theology at the seminary in Tournai.[1] He was associated with the spread of Lamennais's ideas in Belgium. Appointed bishop of Tournai in 1835, he was required to subscribe to the encyclical Mirari vos before being installed in the see.[1]

A proponent of the freedom of education, he established a normal school in his diocese in 1839, and encouraged the work of the De La Salle Brothers.[1] In 1843 he had a diocesan catechism published, based on that of Cambrai.[1] In 1844 and 1856 he issued pastoral letters on the social issues of the day.[1] He travelled to Rome in 1854 for the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception and in 1869-1870 for the First Vatican Council.[1]

He died in Tournai on 16 November 1872.[1]

Notes and References

  1. A. Simon, "Labis, Gaspard-Joseph", Biographie Nationale de Belgique, vol. 30 (Brussels, 1958), 493-496.