Word to the Wise
Monday, November 13, 2006 - St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
[Titus 1:1-9 and Luke 17:1-6]For a bishop as God's steward must be blameless, not arrogant, not irritable, not a drunkard, not aggressive, not greedy for sordid gain, but hospitable, a lover of goodness, temperate, just, holdy, and self-controlled, holding fast to the true message as taught so that he will be able both to exhort with sound doctrine and to refute opponents.
Those words from the Letter to Titus are quite a job description for a bishop! There's a similar one in 1 Timothy 3 (which includes the requirement that a bishop be married only once and have his household under control!). The American bishops will be gathering this week in Washington, DC, to carry out the duties that bishops' conferences everywhere must do. They approve liturgical texts (Oh Woe!) and reorganization plans for their conferences (I'd say "ho-hum" except that those things have a way of impacting local churches eventually for better or for worse). At national conferences of Catholic organizations, inevitably talk gets around to bishops (like lawyers talking about judges). There's the "We've got it good!" and the "You think you have it bad, let me tell you....." In his book about the USCCB (the conference of bishops), Tom Rausch, SJ,, after going through all the steps of the formal process of selection of bishops eventually says that it's a mystery! Bishops have told me themselves that they don't know how they were picked. They "suspect" certain things and lots of people are asked to fill out questionnaires, but eventually the Apostolic Nuncio sends in three names which Rome can use or not use. And the Pope can follow or not follow the advice of the Congregation for Bishops. We democratically inclined Americans don't like that but we do it all the time in hiring! We appoint "an interview committee" to "conduct a search" and while interviews may take place (or not) there's a subjective element. Not everyone in the company gets a vote for CEO! In the case of the selection of bishops, we trust that the Holy Spirit finds a way to get into the process. The system is far from perfect, but reading the newspapers about how bishops are chosen amongst our Anglican brothers and sisters should make us cautious about demanding the democratic American ways in such matters. However, reading the job descriptions in Titus and 1 Timothy and reading the newspapers will tell us that the job is stressful. For the record, we have a great one in the Archdiocese of Louisville. Of course, the fact that he's a Dominican has nothing to do with my high opinion of him! (Yeah, right!) But he is 75 and has submitted his resignation as required by law. So, we will wait and pray with anxious hearts. AMEN
config
view
logs
4096.0 KB
65 ms
4
