The Most Reverend David L. Toups, S.Th.D., the Bishop of the Diocese of Beaumont, will celebrate the University of St. Thomas-Houston’s Winter Baccalaureate Mass at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 15, 2023. The Co-Cathedral is located at 1111 St. Joseph Parkway, Houston, Texas, 77002.

Also at the Mass, UST will bestow an Honorary Doctorate to Bishop Toups.

“The University of St. Thomas is delighted and honored that Bishop David Toups will celebrate our Winter Baccalaureate Mass on Friday, December 15,” UST President Richard Ludwick said. “He is a friend, and I am pleased that the vibrant relationship between the people of the Diocese of Beaumont and this great University continues to thrive and grow. Bishop Toups is a man of remarkable energy and a thoughtful, faithful Shepherd of God’s people. His noted accomplishments in service to the Church and the wider world are just a few reasons the University of St. Thomas will confer upon him the degree Honorus Causus at the Mass for our December graduates.”

Bishop Toups is known in the Beaumont area for his popular daily broadcast, “For the Good,” named in part from his episcopal motto, Romans 8:28, based on his predecessor’s motto and his mother’s favorite quote: “For those who love God, all things work together for good.” You can follow him @itsmyspiritfm or on Facebook.com/Catholic-Diocese-of-Beaumont.

This winter, UST will grant degrees to 281 students, including 197 undergraduates and 84 graduate students. The Mass will be bilingual (Spanish and English) and live-streamed.

Meet Bishop Toups 

Bishop David Toups was ordained and installed the sixth bishop of the Diocese of Beaumont on August 21, 2020. Growing up as the youngest of three children in both Louisiana and Florida, he was ordained a priest in 1997 for the Diocese of St. Petersburg. He has previously served in parish ministry in Florida, in the office of the USCCB’s Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life, and Vocations in Washington, DC, and as a seminary professor, dean, and rector/president at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. He is responsible for numerous articles and is the author of two books: Reclaiming Our Priestly Character (2008) and The Priests We Need: A Rector Speaks to His Seminarians (2019) both by IPF Publications.