Gulstan Ropert

Born in France at Kerfago, St. Gildas de Rhuys, Morbihan, in Brittany, he was baptized as François. François Ropert entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at age 20 and took the name Gulstan. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 26, 1866, at the age of 26.^{[citation needed]}

He was sent to the Kingdom of Hawai‘i^[1] to assist the Vicariate, arriving in Honolulu on June 9, 1868. In 1873, he was one of three priests to volunteer to serve in Molokai; the others were Boniface Shäffer, Rupert Lauter, and Damien De Veuster, the last of whom was selected.^[2]

Ropert was in charge of the Hamakua district on the island of Hawai‘i until October 2, 1883,^[3] when he was assigned to the Wailuku mission. He left Wailuku for Honolulu in 1891 having been appointed Vice-Provincial.^{[citation needed]}

After Msgr. Koeckemann's death on February 22, 1892, Father Ropert earnestly begged his superiors not to be nominated as Vicar Apostolic. Superior General Father Bosquet ignored Father Ropert's request and appointed him as Provincial on April 22, 1892, and recommended that he be a candidate for the office of Vicar Apostolic left vacant by the death of Msgr. Koeckemann. Having received the bull of his nomination to lead the Hawaiian Islands on June 3, 1892,^[4] Father Ropert embarked for San Francisco where he was consecrated in Saint Mary's Cathedral as a bishop of the titular see of Panopolis^[5] on September 25 at the age of 53 by Archbishop Patrick William Riordan, assisted by Bishop Lawrence Scanlan of Salt Lake City and Bishop Francisco Mora y Borrell of Monterey-Los Angeles. Msgr. Ropert adopted an episcopal coat of arms of azure, containing a Saint Anna of Auray, accompanied by the letters A.M. (standing for Ave Maria) in silver with his motto being Tuus sum ego, salvum me fac (from Psalm 118: 94, meaning, I am yours, save me). During his episcopate, Msgr. Ropert witnessed the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893 and the continuing migration of workers for the Hawaiian sugar industry. He built a new residence for the clergy in Honolulu, a wooden two-story building, flanked on all sides, except the rear, by a veranda. Subsequently. the old adobe house was torn down and on its site was placed a statue of Nôtre Dame de la Paix (Our Lady of Peace), which he blessed on December 24, 1893, the sixty-second anniversary of the first expulsion from the Hawaiian Islands of the first prefect apostolic, Msgr. Alexis Bachelot.

Msgr. Ropert's peace-loving nature made him hesitate in enforcing in his vicariate the condemnation by the Holy Office of the secret societies of the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Sons of Temperance on June 24, 1894. The documents of the Holy See were addressed to the Catholic Bishops of the United States and his wish not to disturb the Catholics of his jurisdiction who were members of the condemned organizations inclined him to the opinion (confirmed by Archbishop Riordan of San Francisco) that the proscription was limited to the United States. On the advice of the Superior General of the Picpus Fathers, Msgr. Ropert later published the Roman decree and extended the Holy See's condemnation of the secret societies to include the Hawaiian Islands. To better counteract membership in these societies, Msgr. Ropert supported the establishment of three councils of the Young Men's Institute.

Prior to his first ad limina visit to Rome in 1895, Msgr. Ropert appointed Father Cornelius Limburg as his pro-Vicar. He then left for France in the company of Father Hubert Stappers and a Portuguese youth, Peter Alencastre (later Bishop Stephen Alencastre) who was to begin his studies for the priesthood at Louvain in Belgium. During his voyage, Msgr. Ropert showed his devotion to the priests of his jurisdiction by paying a visit to each one's family - which caused him to journey through France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. He returned to Honolulu on November 16, 1895, accompanied by Father Pamphile deVeuster, the brother of the late Father Damien,^[6] one choir brother and four lay brothers, all destined for the Kalaupapa Settlement. According to arrangements made with the Board of Health, the brothers were given the care of the Bishop's Home for Boys in Kalaupapa. Father Pamphile followed in his brother's footsteps, but being an elderly, scholarly man at the time of his arrival, he could not get accustomed to the surroundings and returned to Belgium on August 25, 1897.

Msgr. Ropert's continuing concern for Catholic education of his flock led him to erect a girls' school in Hilo entrusted to the Franciscan sisters; in Honolulu he also established a free school for boys (St. Francis School) in connection with St. Louis College (September 1893). He also provided a new concrete schoolhouse for the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts (1901). During Msgr. Ropert's episcopate, the Treaty of Paris in 1898 effectively ended the Spanish–American War, with the loss of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. This seminal event would lay the groundwork for the migration of workers for the sugar industry in Hawai‘i from the vestiges of the Spanish empire in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.