The Florida bishops (minus Pensacola-Talllahassee which is still waiting for a new bishop to be announced and installed) met in Miami on Tuesday as guests of Archbishop Thomas Wenski. It took us four hours to dispose of the business of the Florida Catholic Conference. Conference Executive Director Dr. D. Michael McCarron presented us with a lengthy agenda of action items about which there were no real differences of opinion but a need to know more about the challenges which face the Church in Florida in 2012. This state is so lucky to have a superb Executive Director who is assisted by a very able, competent and committed staff. The results of the Conference over the years in the public square far exceeds the per cent of the state population which is Roman Catholic and stands as a testament to prudent, respectful and appreciative engagement with past Administrations (Chiles, Bush, Crist, and Scott in my time) and legislatures.

From left, bishops who attended the Mass included: Bishop Victor Galeone, retired of St. Augustine: Bishop Fernando Isern of Pueblo, Colo.; Bishop John Noonan of Orlando; Bishop Felipe Estevez of St. Augustine; Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice; myself; and Bishop Gerald Barbarito of Palm Beach. Photo courtesy of Ana Rodriguez-Soto with The Florida Catholic.

In the evening we reconvened at the Cathedral of St. Mary in Miami to celebrate retired Archbishop John C. Favalora’s golden anniversary of priestly ordination and silver anniversary of episcopal ordination. I hope and pray that you remember kindly the five years that Archbishop Favalora served as our third bishop here in St. Petersburg. About one hundred and forty priests, nine bishops, and a good representation of the laity came for this special Mass of Thanksgiving.The Archbishop was both the principal celebrant of the liturgy and the homilist. I must say that St. Mary’s Cathedral has a music program to “die for” and as good as I remember it, it has never been better than this evening. The celebration took about seventy-five minutes which is not bad when one gathers that many bishops and others.

Archbishop John C. Favalora sits in the cathedra, a symbol of a bishop's authority, during the Mass. Photo courtesy of Ana Rodriguez-Soto with The Florida Catholic.

Archbishop Favalora gave a beautiful homily on the occasion, focusing not on himself but on the Lord’s call to serve in the priesthood. In twelve minutes (I time myself and everyone else who preaches because I firmly believe that the mind can not absorb what the tush can’t take) he gave a ratio fundamentalis or foundation reasons for what the gift of priestly ministry means in our own time. Only at the end did he quickly express his thanks to those gathered for nourishing his ministry in the past twenty-five and fifty years. At the conclusion, he was greeted with prolonged applause and standing appreciation, I believe not just for his lucid homily but for his many years of service. The Diocese of St. Petersburg is about forty-four years old now and its first bishop, Charles McLaughlin served for the first ten years, then Bishop W. Thomas Larkin succeeded him for just shy of ten years. Archbishop Favalora’s tenure was about five years and my own is soon to enter its sixteenth year. I think each of us has attempted in our own way to nourish and fashion a community of faith at the service of Christ’s Church. I have always been grateful that the Lord in his kindness allowed me to follow Archbishop Favalora because things were in great shape when I came. I only hope I can with God’s help leave them that way for my successor. In words spoken and written yesterday I extended to the good Archbishop the gratitude of the Church of St. Petersburg for his presence in our midst. He seems incredibly happy to be free of the burden of administration and I am admittedly jealous.

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Most of you know that I was a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami prior to coming to the Diocese of St. Petersburg as bishop. Today I returned to my priestly roots and joined the Church of Miami in welcoming their new Archbishop, Thomas Wenski, formerly a priest of Miami, auxiliary bishop there as well, and for the last seven years Bishop of Orlando, our neighbor just across the Polk county line. The installation of one already a bishop is a fairly simple and straightforward Mass with the official installation taking place right at the beginning, prior to singing the “Gloria.” The representative of the Holy Father, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, who is Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, after offering a few words of congratulations and welcome to Archbishop Wenski and of gratitude and farewell to the retiring Archbishop Favalora, then read the “Apostolic Bull” (an English translation of the Latin original) from Pope Benedict appointing the new archbishop. Archbishop Favalora, who began the Mass sitting in the cathedra or chair of the bishop, steps down and with the Nuncio leads the new Archbishop to his place on the same cathedra just vacated. From that point forward Archbishop Wenski presides as principle celebrant and delivers the homily.

I have already written that it was a bittersweet moment for me as I have throughout my fourteen years as a bishop been grateful to Archbishop Favalora for many kindnesses. He ordained me to the episcopacy at St. Jude’s Cathedral on January 26, 1996 (I was his first bishop ordination), he presided over many meetings we have in the state, and more recently he drove over to visit me during my second week in Intensive Care following my second surgery last August and faithfully called me almost every week during my long recovery. After five years here as bishop in St. Petersburg, upon going to Miami he never lost his interest in and concern for this diocese, its priests, deacons, religious and faithful. He came to ordain Father John Lipscomb when I was too weak to do so last December, celebrated our fortieth anniversary with us as a diocese and often asked me about certain priests and people he missed. Now I will miss him. And it all happens in an instant in the context of Eucharist. My moment is coming and I thought about that a lot today, having passed sixty-nine years last Thursday. Retired bishops, archbishops and cardinals need to recall the words of John the Baptist when Jesus appeared on the shore of the Jordan River, “as He grows greater, so I must grow less.” Archbishop Favalora was genuinely relieved to be retiring but not enough thanks has been given to him for his nearly fifty years of priesthood, nearly twenty-five years as a bishop, five years as our shepherd here, and leader of the Church of Florida. It had to be tough to turn over the reins of office but it happens to all of us and is what I call the “genius of Roman Catholic ordained ministry” which means everyone gets a chance occasionally to have someone else as leader. No bishop can make everyone happy, and I hope we do not try, but all God’s people in their lifetime will have an opportunity to experience different styles of leadership in the Church.

Thank you, Archbishop Favalora, for your time as our Metropolitan Archbishop and welcome Archbishop Wenski, home to Miami, and to the role of our provincial leader. There is a little moniker, borrowed from the Easter Gospel, which summarizes what happens the day after an episcopal ordination or installation and it is this: “they rolled the stone before the tomb and all withdrew.” Now the really tough work begins for every bishop after their ordination/installation and they deserve the prayers of the faithful said at every Eucharist and beginning today in Miami, “we pray for Benedict our Pope, Thomas our bishop, his assistant bishops and all the clergy.”

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Update: CatholicTV has the broadcast of the Installation Mass available to view on demand.

Then-Bishop Wenski and then-Archbishop Favalora at Wenski's 10th Anniversary of Ordination as a Bishop. (Florida Catholic)

The Holy See announced at noon Rome time today (600am EDT) that Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the request of Archbishop John Clement Favalora to retire as the third Archbishop of Miami and has appointed as Miami’s fourth archbishop, Bishop Thomas Wenski, formerly a priest of Miami but now serving as bishop of Orlando. This announcement is of special interest to our diocese as many of you will remember that Archbishop Favalora served as third bishop of St. Petersburg and as my immediate predecessor. I was the first priest ordained to the episcopacy by the Archbishop on January 26, 1996 and therefore I am in a way his “oldest son.” In his fifteen and a half years as Archbishop of Miami, he has ordained as bishops Bishop Victor Galeone of St. Augustine, Bishop Wenski of Orlando, Bishop Gilberto Fernandez, Bishop Felipe de Jesus Estevez, and Bishop John Noonan as assistant bishops in Miami and has installed Bishop John H. Ricard as Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee, Bishop J. Keith Symons as Bishop of Palm Beach, Bishop Norbert Dorsey as third bishop of Orlando, Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell of Palm Beach, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Palm Beach, Bishop Gerald Barbarito of Palm Beach, Bishop Wenski of Orlando and Bishop Frank DeWane of Venice. So one can easily see his presence as metropolitan archbishop of Miami just in episcopal ordinations and installations and is in addition to daily managing a large archdiocese.

So what does this change imply for our local Church and for myself? The Church asks archbishops to “mentor” the other bishops of his province, to monitor if necessary important things occurring in the other dioceses, and to call the bishops of the province together from time to time to discuss candidates for the episcopal office. In our case, the Archbishop of Miami is automatically the President of the Florida Catholic Conference so he convenes us as bishops four times a year to conduct the affairs of the FCC, and he is Chancellor of our theologate in Boynton Beach where most of our future priests and bishops are trained, and there we meet twice a year. For myself personally this is a bittersweet moment. I am happy for Archbishop Favalora that after many years of active ministry, as priest and bishop, he will soon be freed of the burden of administration and can begin to relax. As our “leader” he had a wonderful ability to help us relax when we were together and to enjoy the company of one another as bishops. He did not like or lead long meetings and he was available when we needed someone to talk to about anything. I will miss those wonderful gifts very much as I suspect will also my brother bishops. The last few years in Miami have been particularly stressful for not only the archbishop but for many others there so I wish him a stress-less and peaceful retirement.

Bishop Wenski knows what he is inheriting. He is a gifted linguist speaking fluent Creole, Spanish, and Polish in addition to his native tongue. It will be the first time when at a minimum a tri-cultural and tri-lingual urban archdiocese will have someone to easily communicate with the people in their native tongues. As I told him in a phone call, now I know who is likely to bury me and I assured him of my prayers and support in his daunting new ministry.

When the Diocese of St. Petersburg was created in 1968, Bishop Charles McLaughlin was appointed our first bishop. On the same day, the Diocese of Orlando was created and  William Donald Borders was named first bishop of Orlando. Amazingly he died yesterday at the age of  96, one day prior to his successor three times removed  being named to Miami. He himself retired as Arcbishop of Baltimore many years ago. Also yesterday (Monday) the mother of Bishop Barbarito of Palm Beach went home to the Lord after a long life and lots of love from her priest/bishop son. May we remember both of these people in our prayers.

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The Old Florida Capitol Building (now a museum) and behind it the current capitol building.

This was a long day for several hundred of us in the state capital today. In addition to the six diocesan bishops (Bishop John Ricard of Pensacola-Tallahassee, our usual host, was unable to join us) and one auxiliary bishop, about three hundred women and men joined us for the annual “Catholic Days at the Capitol” events. These people received a briefing yesterday from the staff of the Florida Catholic Conference and then were asked to personally visit the offices and, hopefully, speak to their individual Senators and Representatives about forthcoming legislation of interest to the Church and to Catholics. It can be both exciting and frustrating. It is exciting because these volunteers often find strength in numbers and work up their courage to make their case with the elected representatives and it can be frustrating because early in the legislative session (we are in the second week) many members of the legislature are tied up in committee hearings and suddenly are unavailable.

The bishops were supposed to meet with Governor Crist this morning, something we have done for the past three years, but late word came that the governor had to fly to seven Florida cities/towns today and would not be available. Those meetings are valuable but predictable. We talk about education, farmworkers, migration and health care issues and he is engaged but when the subject switches to the death penalty, he, like his predecessors listens respectfully, but then says that he must uphold the laws of the state and continue to sign death warrants for prisoners on Florida’s death row. I am now in my third governor (Chiles, Bush and Crist) and the response of all three have been the same on this neuralgic issue. There was, in fact, to be an execution today but it was stayed last week by the Florida Supreme Court while they determined whether the felon had a sufficient IQ to warrant full knowledge of the consequences of his acts.

Representative Will Weatherford, recipient of the "Defensor Parentum" award from the Florida Catholic Conference

We had a giant, fast lunch today with all the volunteers in town for “Catholic Days at the Capit0l” and any legislator who can break away and make it (they pay for their own lunches) and I am happy to report that Representative Will Weatherford sat at my table and was awarded the Defensor Parentum (Latin for “Defender of Parents) award from the Conference this year for his abiding commitment to “choice in education.” Representative Weatherford, a Methodist, is from Wesley Chapel in our diocese and while not of our faith he has consistently voted pro-life and pro-educational choice. He is from a family of nine  children and a younger brother would be well known to football fans in the state (Drew Weatherford, quarterback for Florida State University). The awardee is slated to become Speaker of the House in three years and I am proud to have him represent a large portion of our diocese. Congratulations to you, Representative Weatherford, for receiving this award and the Catholics of our diocese are proud to have you among our delegation in the Florida House of Representatives.

We bishops met for an hour in the morning with Heroic Media and an hour in the afternoon with the leadership of Catholic Volunteers in Florida. The former is an effort to utilize more fully the media in reaching young women and convincing them of the terrible  consequences of abortion. Its founder, Brian Follett, claims significant success in reducing the number of abortions in those markets which Heroic Media has so far chosen. In the Tampa Bay area there are approximately 300 abortions for every 1000 live births (in Miami the number is a staggering 650 for every 1000 live births) and in Austin, Texas, where the media effort was first tried, the number of abortions per live births has been reduced by one-third. It is an interesting concept which each diocese will have to consider in the future. CVF (Catholic Volunteers in Florida) is a program for recent college graduates whereby they can if they choose to do so devote a few years to doing volunteer work for their Catholic Church. This year there are twenty volunteers working in the state.

The annual Red Mass took place at six o’clock at St. Thomas More Co-Cathedral with Archbishop Favalora as both celebrant and homilist. The Archbishop is planning to retire in November of this year and a lot of things we will do will be something of a victory lap or farewell tour for him. So while he is usually the celebrant for the Mass, this year, likely his final year, we also asked him to preach. He is quite cognizant of the length of time other Red Mass preachers have taken so this year I “clocked” him at exactly fifteen minutes hoping for conversation “fodder” in private.

I should note that we normally have a Florida Catholic Conference meeting of about three hours on this day and will again in the future but last week we did our business on a conference telephone call freeing up some time today (again the Archbishop’s idea leading the rest of us to acknowledge that he must be counting the days). Nonetheless, it is a long day for the bishops and those volunteers who come from around the state seeking to secure some political capital in the capitol.

The 2010 St. Petersburg contingent at Catholic Days at the Capitol

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Fourteen years ago today [December 5th] I was introduced to the diocese as its future bishop. I drove over from Miami where I was a pastor the day before the public announcement and stopped along the way in Venice where the Florida bishops were meeting at the time. They already had been informed by the papal nuncio of the announcement so they welcomed me as a future brother in the episcopal ministry of the state. Archbishop Favalora was in Miami, Bishop Symons was in Palm Beach, Bishop Dorsey was in Orlando, Bishop Nevins was in Venice, Bishop Snyder was in St. Augustine and Bishop Mort Smith was in Pensacola-Tallahassee. I mention their names because only the Archbishop and I remain among the active bishops fourteen years later. I was accompanied on the trip by one of my best priest friends from Miami, Monsignor Jude O’Doherty. After the brief stop in Venice and the warning, “you have no idea what you are getting yourself into” we entered the car and continued north to St. Petersburg. It was all very hush, hush and I had to sneak in under the cloak of darkness. Having been given the wrong directions of where to exit I-275 for Clearwater and the residence of Bishop Larkin, my hiding place for the night, I made my first accidental trip to Tampa before making a U-Turn back to the Pinellas side of the Howard Franklin. One wag said to me, “lost from the first moment in the diocese.”

We met Bishop Larkin, Monsignor Muldoon, and Monsignor Dee, I think, and went to dinner at Heilman’s. No member of the media found me that night and the press conference the next morning was my official introduction through the media to the people of the diocese and area. Mike Wilson of the ST. PETERSBURG TIMES the previous Sunday had been tipped off that an announcement was coming on Tuesday and had written an article listing his three top choices for the appointment and I was one of those he chose.

It was all rather scary, that first day, meeting so many people from the staff, visiting my Cathedral for the first time and what was to be my residence, and talking about the ordination/installation Mass. I was the first bishop of the four in the history of the diocese to be ordained here as both Archbishop Favalora and Bishop McLaughlin came as bishops already and Bishop Larkin was ordained in Rome by his graduate school classmate, Pope John Paul II.

Exhausted, Monsignor O’Doherty and I drove back to Miami in the late afternoon with memories swirling and anxiety rising (at least speaking for myself).

You welcomed me that day and have ever since. You patiently tolerated my weaknesses and have always encouraged me in my ministry. I will let January 26th, 2010  my fourteenth anniversary, pass unnoticed even though that is the official date of my ordination and installation and instead will pray for all of you today. My final surgery may occur as early as next week and I will let you know in this space when I know all the details. In the meantime, thanks for the memories thus far and prayers for all of us in the future.

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Yesterday, our Church ordained its 100th priest since its establishment in 1968. John Bailey Lipscomb was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop John C. Favalora, Archbishop of Miami, at the Chapel of St. James, Bethany Center in Lutz. Father John is the first priest to enter priestly service in our diocese under what is called the “Pastoral Provision” by which married Anglican/Episcopalian priests can become priests of the Roman Rite.  Father John and his wife Marci  made their profession of faith almost two years ago at Nativity parish in Brandon and he has been assigned to be the priest-in-residence and Spiritual Director at the Bethany Center. In this capacity he will be celebrating the sacraments for groups who may be unable to have the presence of a priest, assisting in hearing the confessions of young people on retreat and guiding retreatants during their stay at Bethany. He spent his diaconate months at St. Paul parish in Tampa and will celebrate his First Mass this coming Sunday at St. Paul and then another the following Sunday at Nativity, Brandon.

Since I was uncertain of my ability to preside at the ordination ceremony, I invited Archbishop Favalora to return to ordain Father Lipscomb and he graciously accepted. I was able to preach and if you wish, you can read my homily for the occasion.

100 priests in forty-eight years ordained for this diocese is a milestone of sorts but also an indicator of how desperate we are for vocations from the diocese. With over thirty in the seminary at this time, things look brighter but I don’t count my chickens until my hands rest on their heads at their ordination. What I do count as a blessing is the renewed generosity of young men to try the seminary against the current of popular opinion about the celibate and chaste life and I also pray that the sisters may also experience a growth in vocations.

Congratulations, Father John Lipscomb and we welcome you to priestly ministry in the Church of St. Petersburg.

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Pictures by Ray Basett, Maddock Photographers
for the Diocese of Saint Petersburg

Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the Solemnity of Corpus Christi (The Body of Christ) last Thursday in Rome on the traditional day. Many years ago the bishops of the United States moved the observance of this special day to the second Sunday after Pentecost so more Catholics would be in attendance and they combined it with the Solemnity of the Blood of Christ since both comprise the Eucharist we celebrate. The Holy Father quote Pope Leo the Great in his homily last Thursday who in turn quoted St. Augustine of Hippo that in approaching the Eucharist, “we are to become whom we receive.” A tall order under any circumstances, it remains true today centuries after these great leaders that it is the role and task of every Catholic Christian to take Christ whom we receive into ourselves out into our world, our home, our office, our school, our society, etc. The third and final year of our three year celebration of the Eucharist which we will begin on the First Sunday of Advent is entitled “Become whom you receive” and our speakers at the third and final Eucharistic convocation will reflect that theme in their presentations. We are honored to have Father J. Bryan Hehir, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Boston and former head of the USCCB Committee on International and Domestic Justice and Peace and the English former Dominican Master General, Father Timothy Radcliffe, O.P. among us for the pursuit of this theme. I hope you listened carefully to the readings today because they clearly draw the connection between between the Old Testament Covenant and its use of animal sacrifice with the New Testament Covenant and its unbloody sacrifice of the Mass through the horrific sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

Finally, today we celebrated the Golden Anniversary of Corpus Christi parish in Temple Terrace (Hillsborough County). Fifty years if a comparatively long time for parishes in this diocese and Corpus Christi has served its community well over the years. Among its ten former pastors are Fathers Jerome Carosella and  Nicholas McLaughlin of the Venice diocese, Father Paul Goudreau, Father Alan Weber, Father Brendan Lawlor (who served twice as pastor)  and for the last nine years, Father Joseph Waters who this summer will transfer to become Rector of the Cathedral of St. Jude. Many associate pastors have served these people well over the years. The parish community will begin its six decade with Father Robert Cadrecha as their pastor and everyone I spoke to looks forward to his arrival. It is a great day for the Church in the United States as we pause to reflect on the gift of the Eucharist and also in our parish of Corpus Christi. At the end of the ceremony Father Waters presented me with an award which they have been giving throughout the year to members of the parish who have been especially generous in serving the parish. My award was given not only to myself  but to all the bishops for the past fifty years starting with Archbishop Hurley of St. Augustine who started Corpus Christi parish, Bishop McLaughlin, Bishop Larkin and (Arch)Bishop Favalora. The Mass today was a very fitting conclusion to a year of celebration. Ad multos annos!

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The Archdiocese of Miami announced over the week-end that it will need to close a number of parishes. In a letter to the people of the Archdiocese, Archbishop Favalora noted that  shifting population within the Archdiocese has rendered some parishes no longer sustainable and even a few which have no current financial stress need to be examined for reasons of perhaps better proclaiming the Gospel and celebrating the sacraments amid a declining population. Nothing causes more stress in a life of a local Church than even a hint that a parish might be closed or a school shuttered.

So, you should be asking, does the Diocese of St. Petersburg experience the same pressures as Miami. The answer is “yes” and our greatest stressor, at least at this moment, is  personnel, and specifically the number of priests who will be present to serve God’s people in the near and long-term future. Are we experiencing financial challenges. Indeed we are, especially in our Catholic schools but very few of our parishes are on financial “life-support”. We are faced with declining enrollment which is traceable to two primary reasons: changing demographics and the current unemployment uncertainty which for some families is already a reality. Two good examples  or “case studies” of what is happening can be found the examples of  two schools. For years Holy Name of Jesus parish in Gulfport had a K through 8 school. When it closed several years ago, the enrollment was below 100 yet the school was serving about 65% of all the eligible children of school age in the parish. Since present Catholic school economics show that an elementary school needs at least 270 students to just break even, you do the math. Here was a parish where the demographics of young Catholic families had changed. There were just not enough Catholic families with young children to keep the school going. Now consider St. John Vianney School on St. Petersburg Beach. This school with a long tradition for excellence in elementary education has been facing a steadily declining enrollment for at least the last seven years. Should we be surprised? Recall that the mighty Pinellas County School system this year closed Beach Elementary across the street from St. John’s for lack of school age children residing in the elementary district and they only managed to keep it open for the last seven years by a massive busing-in program from elsewhere in the county. I might add here that St. John Vianney Elementary school is attempting through some very innovative marketing and salary sacrifice by the faculty, to buck the trend, remain open and, please God expand enrollment. That’s the downside of the current situation in the diocese. The upside is that Our Lady of the Rosary parish in Land-o-Lakes and St. Stephens in Valrico and Nativity in Brandon have a significant population base from which to draw young Catholic families and in the latter two schools,there appears to be very sustainable support for their schools. Where are the families of Gulfport and the Beach moving – away from the water with its concomitant high hurricane insurance premiums.

All right, bishop, you may be saying, you have made the case for school mergers and realignment generically, what about our parishes? In the thirteen years I have been bishop (and I sure hope and pray that there has been no cause and effect relationship) the number of diocesan priests on active assignment has decreased from about 125 to 95 and the total number of parishes and missions has increased by two. Furthermore, like the bishop, the clergy is aging rapidly and is not and will not be replaced for a number of years by newly ordained diocesan priests. So can we afford to have full-time priests serving parish communities of less than 300 families when larger parishes are only a few miles away? Is there a better way to provide priestly service than one priest, one parish?  Can good, participative  liturgy be experienced in a church that is more than half empty? This question is currently being studied by the parishes in Citrus and South Pinellas counties where a parish survey and town meetings are currently being held. Some sort of reorganization plan seems likely though outright parish closings may possibly be avoided. None of the parishes mentioned or thought of in this paragraph is on financial life-support either. Rather, it is the diocese that is on the “priest-support” watch list.

I share these realities with you not to raise anxieties and fears that you may be affected but to give you some insight into what diocesan leadership requires at this moment in the history of our local Church. We have been working for a year on parish review and school review and this Fall we may begin to see a plan emerge for both. Your prayers will be most helpful.

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The local Church for which I was ordained a priest, the Archdiocese of Miami, is hurting and I feel for them. You can almost palpably feel the pain in this statement (Español) issued on Thursday night by Archbishop Favalora with reference to the decision of Father Alberto Cutie to leave the Catholic Church of his baptism and ordination and to enter another Church and likely serve as a minister there. To my archbishop, my brother priests and the deacons, religious and laity of Miami I send the prayers and support of a sister Church and a brother priest/bishop. These situations always are painful and this one even more so because of the public persona and notoriety of the priest involved. The news could predictably be expected to generate disappointment, embarrassment, anger, frustration, disillusionment and lots of other feelings. In this case Father Alberto is a classmate of a few of the priests of this diocese and I know they hurt as well. It is never easy for a bishop to say farewell to a priest, often a good priest, who finds the challenge of living celibate chastity too difficult and chooses to leave to marry. The Church has recognized this reality by providing a process by which the priest can petition for dispensation from his priestly vows after a certain period of time. When I have been confronted with this reality here in the past, I have always wished to acknowledge the pain of the moment in all involved, the gratitude for the service given and a desire to assist the priest in beginning his new life. None in my experience have ever caused the public pain which this case is causing and for that I thank God. Also,  I would have to say that most priests choosing to leave for the purpose of marriage do not wish to cause the Church any public pain or embarrassment, in fact they go out of their way to see that does not happen and for that I thank God.

Moments like this occasion a rise in the call to review if not end the requirement of a celibate priesthood within the Catholic communion. Moments like this will never provide the opportunity for the ecclesial calm and reflection which such a review would require and that decision does not belong to any individual bishop or conference of bishops but rather to the whole ecclesial communion led, governed and directed by the successor of Peter, the pope.

I hope that Alberto Cutie will reflect on the pain his decisions have brought to bear on something he has said time and time again he loved and served and we must and should continue to pray for him and for the Church of Miami.

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Harold Hill’s famous announcement in the mythical River City seemed to apply to news from our largest city and the Archdiocese of Miami this week. A well known young priest was seemingly photographed on a beach with an unidentified woman. Because this young priest was something of a media star in the Spanish media, the pictures and the story were all over the state’s media and perhaps even the nation’s. Archbishop Favalora, the competent ecclesiastical authority for this priest, issued a statement indicating sadness at this violation of the promise of celibate and chaste behavior and indicated that the priest involved had been removed from all of his official assignments pending a period of prayer, discernment and reflection. The priest has apologized for his behavior and sought the support of prayers. I have no personal knowledge of the details so I will not use either the name of the priest or even the reported details.

I weigh in on this matter in this forum not to add heat to this controversy but perhaps to shed some light on reality. One thing we have all learned in the last decade is that priests are human. We sin. We can make bad judgments. We are subject to many of the temptations which befall others. We seek the same forgiveness of our Lord as others, need to make restitution in whatever manner is appropriate when others are hurt by our actions and we also need patience on occasion while we try to discern what we have done, its consequences for the Church, for our ministry. and for our vocational commitments and promises. Some actions deserve immediate and swift action on the part of ecclesiastical authority like verifiable misconduct against minors or the vulnerable elderly. Protecting the innocent and vulnerable is a lesson learned. But other human actions, albeit sinful or even just inconsistent with our public witness, need time to heal and wisdom to discern. Most bishops approach these moments with a measure of understanding and a deep desire to heal the shame, seek help for the priest in trouble (if he is willing to accept it), and reassure God’s people that we know what it is to fall from grace occasionally and like a good parent, allow the son/brother/priest to deal with their actions and their consequences. My personal experience through thirteen years as bishop has been often that God’s people understand all this better than we ordained and are more willing to forgive and move on than we to whom the privilege of “forgiveness of sins” has been given.

From a bishop’s perspective, a priest who understands his failings and seriously works on them is a blessing while a priest who ignores or denies his failings or blames someone other than himself is a challenge. Priests could and should say the same about bishops. So “troubles” of some variety will always be a part of the fabric of our lives as Catholics but it should be how we manage them when we become aware of them that is the true measure of the Spirit in the Church today. In this spirit I pray today for the Miami priest and for his bishop, Archbishop Favalora, as each has to deal from different perspectives with what seems to be a basically a human failing from a public promise made. I often think of that line, “there but for the grace of God go I.”

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