Pope Francis has selected an Arkansas priest to serve as bishop of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida's mother diocese and home to the nation's oldest Catholic parish.
Father Erik Pohlmeier, pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Little Rock, received news of his selection earlier this month from Papal Nuncio Christophe Pierre, a French-born archbishop and the Vatican's ambassador to the United States.
He will be installed on July 22.
Pohlmeier, 50, is the second Christ the King pastor to be elevated to bishop. His immediate predecessor at the parish, Father Francis I. Malone, was ordained and installed as the Bishop of Shreveport on Jan. 28, 2020.
At Christ the King's Saturday evening Mass, Pohlmeier's attire signaled his change in status. In addition to his priestly robes, Pohlmeier wore a violet zucchetto, or skull cap, and a golden pectoral cross.
After the final benediction, congregants streamed past him, eager to offer hugs or handshakes and fulsome congratulations.
Little Rock Bishop Anthony Taylor, who had recommended both men as potential bishops, called Pohlmeier "a very effective, much loved pastor," and predicted he would faithfully guide the 17-county diocese, which covers much of northeast and north-central Florida.
The diocese, with 53 parishes and 14 missions and chapels, has its administrative offices in Jacksonville, the state's largest city, and ministers to more than 153,000 Catholics.
Since his ordination in 1998, Arkansas bishops have given Pohlmeier a variety of assignments.
"He has served in every type of apostolate you can imagine: Rural parishes, urban parishes, a suburban parish, an entirely Spanish-speaking parish, an entirely English-speaking parish, a bilingual parish," Taylor said in an interview. "He's been the director of our permanent deacon formation program this last year and will be ordaining 46 permanent deacons."
Pohlmeier found out about his new assignment on May 15, shortly after presiding over a Mass.
Sitting in his car outside the church, trying to make lunch plans, he received a phone call from a Washington, D.C., number that he did not recognize. The man on the other end of the line identified himself as the papal nuncio.
The topic of conversation was hardly a mystery.
"[Pierre] personally makes the call when anybody is being asked to be a bishop, so most priests are familiar with his name, at least," Pohlmeier said. "When he says his name, there's really only one reason that he's calling."
The Arkansan agreed to serve and to keep the news secret. It helped that he was scheduled to spend much of the week participating in a silent retreat at Subiaco Abbey.
Taylor, who had been notified beforehand, offered congratulations and authorized the priest to share the news with two other people -- his parents, Tom and Sharon Pohlmeier of Paris.
The bishop-elect drove to Logan County so he could deliver the news in person. After making them both espressos, he passed along his secret.
Shock quickly was replaced by excitement, he said.
His mother offered a similar assessment in an interview Sunday.
"We just kind of sat in stunned silence for a little while, and then got up and hugged each other," Sharon Pohlmeier said. "We're still trying to wrap our minds around [the fact] that our son is going to be a bishop."
As the secretary at St. Joseph Catholic Church, she continued going to work that week, carefully guarding her son's confidences.
Tom Pohlmeier, the parish's deacon and lawn mower, also kept quiet until the Catholic Church made a formal announcement on Tuesday.
Malone, who has known Pohlmeier for roughly three decades, was delighted by the announcement.
Florida is getting a bishop that is "very reverential" and devoted to the church and its teachings.
"He's a godly man and he always has been," he said.
Pohlmeier is also modest, Malone suggested.
"He'll be embarrassed if I [say this], but I don't care. He's exceptionally bright, just exceptionally bright," Malone said.
In an interview, bishop-elect Pohlmeier said the world needs what the Catholic faith can offer.
It's a message, he said, that Pope Francis, captured well in a 2013 apostolic exhortation titled "The Joy of the Gospel."
"[Pope Francis] says that 'To be saved in Jesus is to be set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness,'" Pohlmeier said.
"Whether people believe or don't believe...people still have to navigate a world that has all the difficulties of the world," he said.
"While people might not talk about sin so much, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness are growing and growing and growing in our society," he said. "People are having to navigate those struggles no matter what their path is. So I believe that faith offers the way to navigate those difficulties."