“We were waiting there with our dirty laundry, our Latin textbooks and whatever other homework we had to take home over the weekend,” recalled Bishop Donald Hanchon.
The other young man was named Allen Vigneron.
Today, both might take it as a show of God’s sense of humor that the two are now bishops for Detroit — Archbishop Vigneron the chief shepherd of the archdiocese, and Bishop Hanchon the newly appointed auxiliary bishop.
“He’s been a friend,” Bishop Hanchon said of the archbishop. “Even before he was the archbishop … We have a lot of funny stories in common as we went through college. Then of course he went off to Rome, I went off to St. John’s … We kind of coincided back at Sacred Heart Seminary later, when he was a philosophy professor and I was vocations director.”
In fact, both local priests who have been made auxiliary bishops have had a connection with Archbishop Vigneron, and both through Sacred Heart. When Archbishop Vigneron introduced the two as bishops at the seminary on March 22, he called the men “among the very best priests” of the Archdiocese, noting that Bishop Hanchon was a universally respected pastor in the archdiocese and Bishop Byrnes was a man of exemplary character with deep theological knowledge.
Archbishop Vigneron was a professor when Michael Byrnes walked through the seminary doors. By the time he was ordained Fr. Michael Byrnes in 1996, Archbishop Vigneron had studied in Rome and returned to Detroit as the seminary’s rector.
“Fr. Vigneron was one of my first teachers here,” said Bishop Byrnes, sitting in his office where he serves as vice rector, prior to ordination. “He helped me a lot early on … he was a big influence.”
Bishop Byrnes credits Archbishop Vigneron for steering him closer to ministry with God’s Word. While rector, Fr. Vigneron wanted Fr. Byrnes to teach Scripture at Sacred Heart.
“He was behind having me go to Rome to study Biblical theology,” Bishop Byrnes says. “He said to me, ‘You have a sense for the Scripture, and I’d like to see you teach that to the men here.’”
Fr. Vigneron was made a bishop very shortly after Michael Byrnes was ordained a priest in 1996.
Shortly after, when Bishop Byrnes was associate pastor at St. Joan of Arc Parish in St. Clair Shores, he would see Bishop Vigneron pay visits to the parish in his role as an auxiliary.
Both Bishop Hanchon and Bishop Byrnes say they take comfort in the fact that they’ll be sharing in ministry with Archbishop Vigneron.
In more recent years, Bishop Hanchon already has worked closely with Archbishop Vigneron. The two would meet regularly as the former has been serving as regional moderator in Detroit.
“He’s been very affirming,” Bishop Hanchon says. “He really wants to know what I think and how I feel … I feel a great deal of confidence, and his trust makes me feel more secure that I’m doing what I should be.
“There’s a value added — as he likes to say — when it’s a friendship as well as a relationship with trust and respect.”
Bishop Hanchon added that Archbishop Vigneron gave him some good advice shortly after the announcement was made that he would become a bishop.
“He said, ‘Don’t just take this as marking an institutional change,’” Bishop Hanchon recalls. “‘This is a responsibility that Jesus is commending to you. So have a good talk with the Lord and ask Jesus what He wants you to do.’”
