May is usually the time when we find out about impending changes at the parish and diocese level. This past weekend I was visiting family in my hometown, which is in the Grand Island Diocese. At the Saturday evening Mass, their pastor made the announcement that Msgr. James Golka, of Grand Island had been named as the successor to the retiring bishop of Colorado Springs, CO, Bishop Michael Sheridan. The pastor said, "We of the Grand Island Diocese are honored that one of our own was chosen as bishop of Colorado Springs. We congratulate him, and wish him all the best. But his shoes will be hard to fill, especially as clergy are already so thin on the ground here."
Update: On the subject of clergy assignments, be sure to read the article from The Tablet on Jim McCrea's email feed, "The None-Makers: Is Anybody Minding the Store?"
In this article, Pope accepts resignation of Colorado Springs bishop, names successor | National Catholic Reporter (ncronline.org), Msgr. Golka is listed as having served in parish ministry for 22 years, and is now the cathedral rector and vicar general for the Grand Island Diocese.
And Colorado Springs is not the only diocese to be getting a new bishop. Msgr. William Koenig has been named as successor to Bishop W. Francis Malooly, retiring bishop of the diocese of Wilmington, Delaware. Welcome Bishop – Catholic Diocese of Wilmington (cdow.org) Msgr. Koenig presently serves as vicar for the clergy in his diocese of Rockville Centre, NY. Wilmington is of course the home diocese of President Joe Biden. More about that later.
These two men who are bishops-elect have several things in common. Both have been involved in ministry at the parish and diocese level for 20 plus years. Both have served as cathedral rectors. This type of background is perhaps not typical for bishops. They haven't studied in Rome, they haven't been seminary rectors, or religious order superiors, professors, or canon lawyers. Their background is mainly pastoral, and it doesn't read like they have been particularly groomed for higher office. Maybe this reflects the pastoral inclinations of Pope Francis?
Of course the big question in the media has been, will the new bishop allow Joe Biden to receive Communion at Mass? Wisely, he has declined to comment on that. I feel that for this to be the issue that sucks all the oxygen out of the room is an injustice to the Catholics of the Wilmington Diocese. For at least the next four years Joe Biden will be only an occasional visitor to Wilmington, residing as he does in Washington DC. There are many other more relevant concerns occupying the attention of the bishop and the people.
On the parish level, we found out this weekend that our pastor will be transferred. We don't know who we will be getting. We already know that the incoming pastor will be required to take on a mission church, or possibly two, in addition to St. Anthony of Padua here in our town. We're pretty easy to please. Just please, Archbishop Lucas, don't send us a jerk or an idiot. Or someone like the guy from the town down the road who attended the Capitol Insurrection. For the most part, our priests have been decent guys who work well with their congregation. If not, there are two other parishes in town. Easier for me to say that than my husband. So we will pray for the right person to come here.
I thought it was funny that initially Msgr. Golka didn't pick up the call from the papal nuncio announcing his selection, because he didn't recognize the number and thought it was a junk call.
ReplyDeleteBoth the Pope and Bishops are scraping the bottom of the barrel to find qualified personnel.
ReplyDeleteWhen the pastor of my favorite parish retired about two years ago he was replaced by a young priest ordained only six years who had not yet pastored any parish. The retiring pastor was a scripture scholar who continues to teach in the nearby seminary. The new priest colleagues told him he was very fortunate the parish was staffed by very qualified lay people. The retiring priest broke the bad news to the new guy that he was going to have to spend all his time and effort on raising money for a new roof. The new guy was looking forward to being in charge of great liturgies in this very liturgical parish; what he got was the pandemic. What a season of change for everybody!
Just at first glance, without knowing the people, it appears to me that the pope did okay with the selection of the above mentioned bishop candidates. With upcoming pastor selections, maybe a different story. For one thing, the bishop selections took qualified people out of their home dioceses. And the fund raising and administrative duties seem to be an ever-present burden. It's great if a parish has qualified lay people to handle that stuff, but a lot of times the lay people don't want to do it either.
DeleteIn the Chicago Archdiocese, the priests have input on where they may be assigned. Probably they hold a great deal of practical power now, as there are fewer priests available for reassignment than positions open, so priests can be choosy about which assignments they'll accept.
ReplyDeleteWe got a new pastor some 2-3 years ago. Great guy, couldn't have worked out better. He was a "secret shopper" for several masses during the selection period - he checked us out to ensure it was a place he'd feel comfortable.
Our archdiocese isn't so big that whoever we get this time is going to be a complete unknown. Chances are people have met him at some point, or at least heard of him. I'd like to think that we are a desirable parish. We do have a school, and that can be both a plus or a minus. The minus part being the financial responsibility. And then there's the mission parish(es) which are being added on. But we don't have any building projects going on. Just a parking lot paving thing.
DeleteOne thing I really appreciate about the priest who is leaving is that he kept politics out of things.
I'm praying for the new guy, I'm sure it isn't easy going into a new place. But like you said, they have some leverage nowadays. Hopefully he'll be here because he wanted to be.
I don't know whether this is true in other places, but the Chicago priests are organized - they have a priest's association which is independent of the archdiocese. I believe this association can serve as a quasi-union in some ways.
DeleteDeacons now are invited to join the association, but I am not sure whether many of us have taken up the invitation. I haven't. But I admit that, until we've started having this conversation, I've barely considered the purpose and value of such a thing as an independent association.
The fact is, the deacons aren't too organized around here. We don't know one another, we don't really see one another very often (even less so during the pandemic). The only get-togethers we have are archdiocesan-sponsored activities. Over the years, I've thought it would be great to get the deacons in this local area to meet once a month or so, not to be a quasi-union, but to pray together and see if there are areas of common interest where we can collaborate on ministry. For example: I think we could serve the homeless in this area better if we understand what each of are doing, share best practices, etc.
I've never acted on the urge to organize such a thing, though. I've put out informal feelers to a few of the guys in this area whom I've met on retreats or at symposia, but haven't really received much by way of interest. We're all wrapped up in our own lives and ministries. It's too bad, because I don't doubt we could be more effective if we banded together more.
The deacons here are sort of loosely organized, but it's more for spiritual support. The priests have a more formal organization, and are subdivided into deaneries. But I don't get the idea that it is at all independent of the archdiocese.
DeleteThere is a priest now who is suing the archdiocese for defamation of character. It seems that his name was included on a list of "credibly accused". However this was after the case was investigated and he was cleared of any wrongdoing. We'll see how it turns out. Maybe an organization that functioned as a union could have been helpful.
Right, we're also divided into vicariates and subdivided into deaneries. Pastors within the deanery seem to rotate in and out of the office of dean. That's definitely an archdiocesan thing. For deacons, there are vicariate and deanery coordinators for each of these administrative units, but none of them touch my life. I think I've heard from the deanery coordinator maybe twice in my 17 or so years of ordained ministry. I don't think they've ever organized a deanery meeting.
DeleteAt the vicariate level, they do try to get us together from time to time. The vicariates each are led by auxiliary bishops. The auxiliary bishop, not Cardinal Cupich, technically is my "boss". We have a new auxiliary bishop, haven't met him yet. He was actually at our parish celebrating mass this past Saturday evening, but I was out of town. I heard good reviews, though - reports are that he's a good guy and a good preacher. That probably means he'll get short-listed to become a bishop of a diocese - that's usually what happens to the young and good ones.