After Bishop-elect Michael Izen finished listening to the Gospel at a children’s Mass the afternoon his appointment as the next auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis was announced, no one was surprised when he left the lectern and walked down the main aisle, discussing messages from the reading with school children.

Each child he talked to, he addressed by name.

Knowing and greeting St. Croix Catholic School’s approximately 350 students by name is something he does every day. The school is located next to St. Michael church in Stillwater, where he is pastor.

“He knows everyone in the school, and he calls them by name, just how Jesus calls us by name,” said eighth-grader Lauren Hoffman, 14. “It reminds me how much he does care for us and how he wants to help us and get to know us individually and help us with our role, like Jesus’ role in our lives, helps us do that by just knowing us and knowing that God made us to be us.”

“He knows every child in the school,” added Sam Nelson, who has four children at St. Croix Catholic. Most every school day morning, Bishop-elect Izen is out front with Sister Maria Ivana, school principal, greeting the students as they arrive, he said. “It’s such a gift to have a priest who really cares about each individual child,” he said. “He’s been a huge blessing to the school.”

Sam and his wife, Beth, both 34, have Catherine at the school, a fifth-grader; Henry, a third-grader; Jane, a second-grader and Willa, who is in kindergarten. The parents attended the children’s Mass with their youngest, 1-month-old Mae.

When Beth heard the news that morning that Father Izen would be elevated to bishop, she was surprised and excited “but then so sad to lose him, or probably to lose him.” She said those she had talked with about the news felt a sadness “that comes with that great calling.”

“I was tearing up watching him walk down the aisle,” she said. “He’s an amazing pastor.”

Their children agree, the couple said, sharing the example of Henry walking by Father Izen at school one day as he worked on a homily. Henry asked if he needed some help with his homily, and Father Izen “used a line or two from Henry,” Sam said. The children know they have an open relationship with him, Sam said, and the priest is “totally approachable.”

When young altar server Henry heard the news about Father Izen’s new role, his immediate reaction was to ask his parents if he could serve at the ordination. “I’m sure he has already asked him,” Beth said.

A member of the school board, Sam said the bishop-elect is attentive to parish needs expressed by different groups. He said he sees Bishop-elect Izen at board meetings and hears from parish council members that “he’s so attentive to what people’s opinions are, the feedback from people, and he wants to make sure that everybody’s voice is heard.”

Having Bishop-elect Izen know students and families so well makes the school feel like home, said second-grade teacher Fran Romportl, 59. With second grade a big year to learn about sacraments, he sometimes discusses the sacraments in the classroom, she said. She also noted his sense of humor, which brings “a lot of joy in the hallways and wherever he’s at.”

Sister Maria Catherine Rethwisch, a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, has served in religious life nearly 18 years, and teaches seventh- and eighth-grade English literature and history, and sixth-grade religion at St. Croix Catholic. Father Izen’s deep love for Jesus shows as he brings that love to students in a tangible way “because he’s so present to them,” she said.

She also praised his strong support for Catholic education. He has scheduled time in classrooms but also “pops in to lunch” at least once a week with students, she said. He plays basketball and other sports with students at recess and participates in talent shows, playing piano and drums. “It’s a joy that other people now get to experience his pastoral presence and his embodiment of being an instrument of Jesus, the good shepherd,” she said.

Bishop-elect Izen is a strong supporter of the school living out its mission as an evangelizing arm of the parish and “really seeing the school as a place for children and families to encounter Jesus,” Sister Maria Catherine said. “He really helps support the principal and the teachers in making the school a place of an excellent seeking of truth, goodness and beauty, but above all, a place where Jesus is met and encountered, and families feel the love of Jesus in the school and then want more of that.” And they come to the Church, she said. “Father Izen has very much made that a priority and supported that in every way.”

Eighth-grader Bennett Davis, 13, said Bishop-elect Izen spreads positivity and that his homilies are understandable and relatable to children’s lives, from the younger to the older children. Davis’ classmate, Grace Williams, 13, said it felt “surreal” to have two bishops associated with St. Croix Catholic School, as Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Williams attended the school.

In addition to education, Sister Maria Catherine values Father Izen’s support for religious life, whether by visiting the mother house and getting to know “the whole community,” or being present when Sisters take final vows “and coming to prayers with us,” she said. She said he says Mass at her convent “and makes sure we always have the Blessed Sacrament.” “He does everything he can to help us to live fully in this parish, which is just a huge gift,” she said.

Sister Maria Ivana, also a member of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, and principal of St. Croix Catholic, said she has never known a pastor who was “so supportive, so present in a Catholic school.”

“He knows the name of each child, he visits with teachers and staff throughout the day, he is a good shepherd who leads the flock to the Good Shepherd,” she said.

Sister Maria Ivana said she spoke with Bishop-elect Izen the morning of his appointment — saying it was a joy for the Church that still was tinged with some sadness for “our school and parishes.” Bishop-elect Izen told her it would be a change to “not have a school.”

Sister Maria Ivana said she has no doubt that the bishop-elect’s leadership “will now be a blessing and a support to all 91 schools in the archdiocese.”

At the end of Mass, Assistant Principal Eric Trygstad announced school dismissal information from the lectern and added a challenge for students. Referencing comments students heard Bishop-elect Izen make earlier that day about his childhood — when after supper, before he went outside to play, he prayed a rosary with his family — Trygstad challenged the students to do the same.

After supper that night, “as kind of a little thank-you for the influence Father has in our lives, please ask your family and say a rosary together,” Trygstad said. “I think that would be just a very well-spent time together as a family, and also a great way to get roughly 300 rosaries said for our bishop-elect here as he moves forward into the challenges ahead.”

As students left Mass and walked through an adjacent atrium, many stopped to give an enthusiastic “high five” to Father Izen.