Arlington bid a final goodbye to its “founding father” Bishop Thomas J. Welsh Monday at a memorial Mass at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington.

Representatives from the Catholic Distance University (CDU), the Vietnamese and Hispanic communities, and family and friends — all dear to the heart of the former bishop — joined Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde, Washington Auxiliary Bishop Martin D. Holley and diocesan priests in celebrating the life of the man who, for more than eight years, shepherded the Arlington flock.

Bishop Welsh, 87, who served in Arlington from 1974-83, died Feb. 19. A funeral Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Justin Rigali Feb. 28 at St. Catharine of Siena Cathedral in Allentown, Pa.

“He was always vigorous and engaged,” said Bishop Loverde, principal celebrant and homilist, during his opening remarks. “His unfailing humor along with that twinkle of the eye — all this I had subconsciously concluded would never end.”

Bishop Loverde said that Bishop Welsh embodied the true spirit of Christ as the Good Shepherd and that he lived his life as “a person of authentic Christian hope.”

Members of Bishop Welsh’s family, including his brother, Bill, sat in the front pew and were greeted by Bishop Loverde as he processed in to the Mass. Marianne Evans Mount, president of CDU, which Bishop Welsh formed in 1983, proclaimed the first reading. Members of the Vietnamese community carried up the gifts prior to the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Kim-Cuc Nguyen, a former Vietnamese refugee and a member of the community that Bishop Welsh reached out to so profoundly in the mid-1970s, said she attended the Mass to remember the bishop, to thank him and to pray for him.

“I hope he will pray for us,” said the parishioner of Holy Martyrs of Vietnam Parish in Arlington. “Bishop Welsh was the great example of the model of Christ for all of us,” said Father James Gould, pastor of St. Raymond of Peñafort Parish in Springfield, and one of the priests ordained by Bishop Welsh. “A lot of us came here because of him,” Father Gould said. “He was an inspiration.”

In his years of service in Arlington, Bishop Welsh established six new parishes. His many accomplishments include being a strong proponent of vocations, welcoming women religious into the diocese, establishing the Office of Migration and Refugee Services and CDU, and founding the Arlington Catholic Herald.

“All we are and do now is rooted in his episcopal life and ministry,” Bishop Loverde said. “A founding bishop does so much to set the tone and direction of a diocese, and Bishop Welsh’s impact on this diocese endures to this day.”

For entire text of Bishop Loverde's homily, go here.

Coming soon: podcast of homily.