Pierre-Lambert Goossens
Pierre -Lambert Goossens Cardinal ( born July 18, 1827 in Steenokkerzeel; † January 25, 1906 in Mechelen) was a Belgian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Archbishop of Malines.
Life
Pierre -Lambert Goossens, who came from a good middle class family, he studied philosophy and theology at the seminary in Mechelen, and received on December 21, 1850 - also in Mechelen - the sacrament of Holy Orders. Immediately thereafter, Goossens Professor at Breuel College, a seminar was to prepare young men to the priesthood career.
After five years of teaching Goossens in 1851 chaplain of the municipality of Mechelen; at the same time he was secretary of the archbishop, at this time Engelbert Sterckx. On April 17, 1878 Goossens was followed by appointment as vicar general of Cardinal Victor Augustin Isidore Deschamps.
On June 1, 1883 Goossens was appointed Titular Bishop of Abdera in Greece to be only a month later, was appointed on 16 July 1883, for the bishop of the diocese of Namur. The episcopal ordination itself took place on 24 June 1883 made by Jean -Joseph Faict, the Bishop of Bruges. Eight months later, on March 24, 1884, Goossens succeeded dislocation as archbishop of Mechelen.
Just two months after his appointment as Archbishop Goossens received the next assessment, as by Pope Leo XIII. recorded in the Consistory of 24 May 1889 as cardinal priest with the titular church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in the College of Cardinals.
Pierre -Lambert Goossens was in Belgium as a tireless defender of the faith, who founded 86 parishes and 840 Catholic primary schools in which up to 120,000 children could be taught. He also founded 10 universities. He also campaigned for social concerns, and took care of the poor of the society.
Goossens was a participant in the conclave of 1903, in which it was Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto cardinal elected Pope Pius X..
Shortly before his death, he also placed the foundation stone for the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Brussels, one of the largest churches in the world.
Cardinal Goossens is now in the crypt of the Cathedral of Mechelen buried.