Gerald Andrew Gettelfinger

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GERALD ANDREW GETTELFINGER

Born : October 20, 1935
Deceased :

Bishop of Evansville, 1989-2011

Official blazon

Origin/meaning

As common in US episcopal heraldry, the arms show the arms of the diocese impaled with the personal arms of the bishop.

The pale shows nine gold stars for the parents, two brothers and five sisters of Bishop Gettelfinger. Gold represents the joy and wisdom shared in growing up in a large family. The hills and fields of southern Indiana, symbolized by a green ground with blue heavens and waters of the Ohio river the importance of place and space to the Bishop. The gold sphere not only symbolises the summer sun of those fields but of Jesus who is the "Sun of Righteousness" and the "Light of the World." It is the sun of a new day.

The sower is a special symbol. He casts seed in a wide arc to the ground. As the son of a farmer, the teacher of youth and preacher of the assembly, Bishop Gettelfinger reveres the symbol in the "broadcaster of seed.

The motto, "Dominus pars" is derived from the Tonsure Prayer of Ordination (Psalm 16). "Dominus pars hereditatis meae et calicis mei: tu es qui restitues hereditatem meam mihi" (The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; it is you who will restore my inheritance to me).

The achievement is completed with the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See, of March 1969, confirmed in March 2001.

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