Many things on my mind today and the week just ended has been one of the most physically taxing in a long time since the normal Advent and pre-Christmas schedule was interrupted by a trip to Baltimore for a meeting at Catholic Relief Services. So, here goes,

Bishop John Noonan was installed as fifth bishop of Orlando on Thursday at the Shrine Basilica of Mary, Queen of the Universe. A congregation in excess of 2,500 warmly welcomed their new shepherd and in his homily, the new shepherd demonstrated the warmth of his love and fondness for his new diocese. The ceremony was quite lovely and lasted less than 105 minutes which is a miracle in itself. Bishop Noonan did a wonderful thing at the end of Mass when in speaking of Advent as the season of hope, he invited all the seminarians present to come forward as witnesses to hope which the faithful should have for their Church. The bishop has spent almost seventeen of his twenty-seven years in the priesthood working in seminary formation at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami, as Dean of Men and then for a good number of years as President-Rector. About eighty seminarians came forth to a standing and prolonged ovation from the people at the Shrine and proudly I could identify about twenty-five as being from our diocese.

Last night saw the annual Christmas dinner for our seminarians and their families (about 190 persons), their pastors and priest friends, and myself. Following Mass in the St. James Chapel we proceeded to Archbishop Favalora Hall where we had dinner and bade farewell with great gratitude to Father Leonard Plazewski who has held the position of Vocation Director of this diocese for twelve and a half years. An earlier post here indicated the transition and who his replacements would be in that very important position within the diocese. The seminarians are fond of Father Len and so the leave-taking was not that easy for him or for many but the Church of St. Petersburg owes him a debt of thanks for his hard work over the years recruiting and assisting seminarians through to priesthood. It is always wonderful to see our men and their families in a relaxed atmosphere and to begin to acknowledge the coming of Christmas with their return to their homes.

Father Len Plazewski saying his good-by and thanks to those present for the annual Christmas dinner for our seminarians and their families. (Photo courtesy of A. Padilla, seminarian)

The Bethany Center is fast becoming my second home as I seem to be spending many nights there lately. Prior to last night, I held the third of my overnights with our priests, this time being the international priests (born and formed in other countries like Poland, India, African nations, the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, and Central and South America). Our lengthy conversations about their experiences in coming to minister in the United States and in this diocese were both illuminating and helpful to me. They are a great and generous group of men who understand the challenges of language, culture, accent, etc. and who wish nothing more than to be accepted by me, by you, and by their brother priests as no longer a category (e.g. “international priests”) but just as priests of the diocese.

I have had only one angry over-the-top “comment” to a blog entry here which focused on the lack of a “corpus” (figure of Christ) on the large crucifix at Holy Family Catholic Church and made much of the stained glass window of the “Risen Christ” in the rear of the sanctuary. I regret ruining this readers day then and now as I failed to mention that the wood-carved body of Christ did not arrive on time to be installed on the cross and is due in a few weeks and as for the “stained-glass window”, it was in the church since its first dedication and was a sine qua non for the older parishioners in the renovation. When the figure of Jesus arrives and is placed, I will put a picture here in the profound hope that the reader will calm down but I would bet not. He was from Michigan, anyway, not the parish or the diocese.

This evening a number of the staff of our Pastoral Center gathered at Pinellas Hope to prepare, serve and feed the 262 residents on this cold Florida night. Working without a raise for the last two years, this group paid for the food, prepared it, and served it. I lent them my presence and not my culinary expertise of which I have none.

Pastoral Center staff serving one line at Pinellas Hope on December 19, 2010

Father Bob Morris and his mom also helped out

When the new year begins, forty bishops from the East Coast (the Wilmington diocese down to Miami) will gather for their annual retreat from the 3-7 of January at the Bethany Center. Several Cardinals, four archbishops and the rest bishops will spend their first visit to Bethany being led in our prayer and reflection by Bishop Jaime Soto who is the bishop of Sacramento, California. They are all looking forward to coming back to the Diocese of St. Petersburg after having spent a week here this past summer, hoping for warm weather (a coin toss in early January as we locals know), and ready to enjoy our hospitality and the beauty and comfort of Bethany. So I still have some blogs left in me right up to and including the Feast of the Holy Family a week from today but after that – SILENCE until the 7th of January.

That just about empties the file I have in my mind. Enjoy this final week of hope and expectation.

+RNL

The Most Rev. John Noonan - Bishop-designate of Orlando

On the day I was ordained a deacon for the Archdiocese of Miami, the final step in my journey to priesthood, as we were preparing to leave St. James Catholic Church in North Miami to drive to St. Clement’s Church in Fort Lauderdale where I would be the first ordination of Miami’s new archbishop, Edward A. McCarthy. one of the senior priests whom I had been living with, Father George Razzutis, was rushed to the local hospital with what appeared to be (and was indeed) a heart attack. From the stretcher on the way from the house to the ambulance, this grand old priest said to me, “It is OK, God today gives us a new priest and takes an old one.” Father Razzutis lived for three more days in the hospital and each day when I would visit him would take my hand and say almost exactly the same phrase. It is a characteristic of our God, He sometimes takes away but then if we wait long enough, we can see His provident hand at work once again as He gives us something unexpected to raise and buoy our spirits. Yesterday was one of those days with the death of our dear Monsignor Scully but I did not have to wait long to witness God’s loving care for his Church at work again.

This morning at noon in Rome (6:00am EDT), it was announced that my brother Miami priest and bishop, John Noonan, was chosen by the Holy Father to become the fifth bishop of Orlando, our neighbor the east, starting in the border counties of Polk, Sumner and Marion. Bishop Noonan was a classmate in the seminary of our Father Michael Muhr and escaped myself as his Rector by several months as he was already in the theology seminary in Boynton Beach in 1979 when I was made Rector of St. John Vianney Seminary. Born in Ireland but with most of his education, certainly in the seminary, in the United States, once ordained he became a priceless, hard-working parish priest. He would later return to St. John Vianney College Seminary as Vice-Rector and Dean of Men as well as Rector. A number of our younger clergy ordained the last twelve years remember him fondly in this capacity. Astute, holy, hard-working, Bishop John Noonan would earn the respect and, I would say, fondness of the priests of Miami during the recent years when he has served as Auxiliary Bishop and touchstone with the priests often in their relationship with their archbishop.

A segment of our diocesan family will remember that last October he came to St. Jude’s Cathedral and ordained nineteen of our permanent deacons, in so doing winning the hearts of all those in the Cathedral that day. Orlando does not yet appreciate how lucky they are in this appointment but it will not take them long. I thank the Lord this morning that a good and dear friend has been chosen to lead the Church adjacent to my own, begun on the same day as my own, now slightly larger than my own. There is a world of difference between being an auxiliary bishop in the Church and an ordinary or bishop-in-charge. Together let us pray between now and his installation on December 16, 2010 for our sister Church in Orlando and for Bishop Noonan. Orlando I hope appreciates that they did not have to wait long when the Lord took their previous bishop and then gave them their new bishop. Vere dignum et justum est (it is truly right and just.)

+RNL

It is not all that easy for me at 69 to recall vividly things which happened to me when I was 24 but there is one, vivid memory of 1965 which I have never consigned to the dead-letter file and that was the visit of Pope Paul VI to the United Nations headquarters in New York for a day that began for him in Rome and finished thirty hours later when his plane touched down in Rome. To b e a Catholic that day was to be especially proud. Popes just did not travel outside of Rome and certainly not by jet plane across the span of an ocean for fourteen hours in one place and then back home again. The triumphant arrival of Pope Paul, his talk at the United Nations General Assembly and then very late in the day at Mass in Yankee Stadium saw most Catholics glued to their black and white televisions, listening to the commentary of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen who told us that “TWA”, the initials of the airline flying the Holy Father back to Rome meant “Travel With Angels” and as his plane took off around midnight from JFK Airport, the good Bishop ended the day with a line from Shakespeare: “Good Night, Sweet Prince.” The Holy Father personally and the Catholic Church in the United States generally gained enormous credibility that day. All of this is by forward to share with you the homily which I gave last Sunday at the seminary for the Eucharistic Liturgy and Installation of Lectors and Acolytes (see the previous blog entry). The Gospel that day was the same as Sunday’s, Lazarus and the rich man.

Homily at Mass of Installation of Lectors and Acolytes
Regional Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul
Boynton Beach, FL
Sunday, September 26, 2010
26^th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Most Reverend Robert N. Lynch, Celebrant and Homilist

A week from tomorrow, Monday, October 4, 2010 will mark the forty-fifth anniversary of an extraordinary moment in the life of the Catholic Church in the United States and of the papacy. It was on that very day that the first Pope in history set foot on American soil. He came as an uninvited guest to our country to speak to and at the sole invitation of the United Nations in a speech that was widely praised throughout the world. At the annual meeting of the General Assembly to which he had been invited, speaking in French, he spoke the now famous words, “no more war, war never again. Peace, it is peace that must guide the destinies of all mankind.” He might have easily left this continent at the conclusion of his historic visit to the U.N. but he had one more thing to do prior to departing for Rome. Paul VI took his remaining time to speak to the United States, to we Catholics who were so proud that day, this time at the old Yankee Stadium, late in the day, and the Gospel was today’s, Lazarus and the Rich Man, the poor and the rich, people and nations, all God’s children.

I can not forget that night, transfixed in front of a television set, watching the frail figure of the successor of St. Peter in the house that the non-biblical Ruth built challenge myself and the country I love to do more than merely send the “scraps” of our plenty to the poor in our country and in the world but instead to share of our substance. It was at that precise moment, I recall, that I first began to understand both the power of God’s Word which some of you this morning will be formally allowed to proclaim. There is power to be found even in simply proclaiming the Word of God.

The first reading from Amos when read with passion puts all of us on notice that too much comfort can lead to complacency and too much complacency can lead to eternal exile. The second reading when read with feeling stirs in the hearts of the listeners Paul’s exhortation to cloth ourselves not in rich purple robes, green vestments, lace garments, for they will amount to little in the final reckoning but rather in righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness. Paul says, “pomp” doesn’t work; instead we must humbly bring our gifts to the competition for the faith of our human family. To proclaim the word of God is to share one’s faith, one’s belief, and one’s hope.

As that night in Yankee Stadium grew darker and colder and midnight Eastern time approached, Paul VI talked about the table of plenty, filled with the manifest blessings of God, but which in the name of humanity needed to be shared with the Lazarus’ of the world.  Think for a moment how little we know about either Lazarus or Dives, the name history has given to the rich man for the bible fails to name him. What was the source of Lazarus’ poverty? Ninety-five percent of the population of Palestine at the time of Jesus was desperately poor. So he had sores, that much we know. Was he the precursor of the homeless woman or man at the intersection of streets whose sign reads: “hungry, will work for a dollar?” We only know that Dives looked the other way, ignored the poor person before him. And what of Dives? Was he an officer of ENRON or AIG or a man who accumulated his wealth honestly and in a socially responsible manner? All we know is that he was blind and indifferent to the need both in front of and around him.

In the end, in eternity, the rich man’s last words are a plea to warn his brothers [and sisters] so that they [we] do not succumb to the same fate. Paul VI used this Gospel to draw the attention of humanity to its own table of plenty and beg those of us so richly blessed to share with those who have so little. And then, as I shall do, he invited those in the stadium and the world to share at the one table which makes no distinction between rich and poor, between male or female, between gloriously garbed or wrapped in the rags of manual labor. He celebrated the Eucharist. How blessed we are who are ordained to stand close to the altar and Christ eucharistically present. How blessed you are who are to be formally installed as acolytes no matter how many times you have served Mass up to this moment, to have your Church say “draw closer, watch, pray, invite, share.”

Glamour and glitter in priestly ministry leads to spiritual macular degeneration. A bishop friend of mine recently recounted how during the summer he faced an urgent pastoral emergency in one of his parishes, a financially challenged parish of tri-cultural and language reality. He turned to a priest with a doctorate degree who had served for a number of years in a more specialized ministry in the diocese, asked him to drop everything and fill a huge, gaping pastoral hole. While expressing a concern for the needs of the ministry he had been in, this priest immediately said “yes” and reminded his bishop that at his ordination he had promised obedience and respect, so of course he would go. That bishop said to me and to other bishops who heard him tell the story, that he wished there were more like this priest, able to see beyond the comfort of the familiar to the challenge of the desperate.

There are times when I worry that I am too comfortable in this life. Personally, I think God took care of my vanity thirteen months ago. There are no glorious gowns to be found among hospital wear! I now better and more deeply understand humility after sixty-eight years. Unless we are humbled, we can too easily succumb to the comforts that are ours and ignore the discomfort of others.

Let me begin to close with this insight from the absolutely best book I have read in the last decade at least, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything by Father James Martin, S.J.:

If we dismiss the insights which come from the poor and reject the invitation to simplicity by saying, “I can’t live like that,” then these insights and invitations will never make any difference in our lives. Making the invitation unattainable also makes it easier to reject. Likewise, when we wallow in guilt and decide that it is impossible to change, we are subtly letting ourselves off the hook, excusing ourselves from change. . . .But it is an invitation to freedom and not to guilt.. . . Ultimately, it moves us closer to the forgotten and outcast, something at the heart of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.”[1]

From this Eucharistic table, O Lord, may we always see and respond to the poor and the needy who sit and pray before us.

Last Saturday night I had the privilege of celebrating the Eucharist with about 140 doctors and their spouses in what is called the “White Mass”, obviously taking its name from the color of the coat that many doctors used to and still wear when seeing patients. We have a somewhat embryonic attempt at organizing a local chapter of the Catholic Physicians Guild and Saturday’s gathering gives myself and the organizers great hope for the future. It is not easy to get physicians to take the time and come to an event of this nature given the challenges of their schedules.

Group photo after the White Mass and Dinner at the Bethany Center

A local physician, Dr. Averill  from Clearwater and a member of St. Catherine of Siena parish who has combined his practice with his promises as a Third Order Franciscan was the principal speaker. He commented, and it was the first time I heard this, that many modern day graduates of medical schools either do not take the Hippocratic Oath or take a revised oath which meets the requirements more of political correctness than the traditional oath. Each year at the annual Red Mass for judges and lawyers, I hear these men and women repeat their oaths taken at the time of their admission to the bar and admire their promises to their profession and I have always until now assumed and admired the Hippocratic Oath taken by physicians. It is a sad commentary on our times that this very important foundation of medical practice is falling into disuse.

Bishop Lynch with students and physicians from the USF Medical School after the White Mass & Dinner

The Liturgy was followed by a dinner and brief program at our beautiful Bethany Center and it was wonderful being with these fine Catholic women and men. Also, ten students from USF’s Medical School with one resident and one of their mentors were in attendancee, two of them graduates of the University of Notre Dame, and they have asked for a follow-up retreat at Bethany prior to entering their respective practices and upon completion of their residency programs. That, good people, is a very, very positive sign and a benefit coming from the work of the Guild.

The encounter Saturday evening followed three days of meetings on our Southeast coast of the Board of Trustees of both St. John Vianney College Seminary and St. Vincent de Paul theologate and a third meeting on Saturday morning of the Florida bishops for the Florida Catholic Conference. I am of the mind that when and if I get to heaven’s gate, if there is a meeting board announcing a meeting for newcomers, I think I may wish to go the other direction.

+RNL

There is an old story which probably most of you know about the kid feverishly shoveling his way through a huge and high pile of compost. When asked what in the world he/she was doing, the child replied, “with all this, there has to be a pony down here somewhere.” Today in Rome, the Holy See announced the expected pontifical visitation to the Church in Ireland in light of the horrendous revelations of sexual abuse of minors by priests, religious brothers and religious sisters which has devastated the faith in that country. Some must ask why now? Is it not too late? Is the horse not already out of the barn? Of course, it is never to late to confess one’s sins, personal and institutional, amend one’s life, personal or institutional , and agree to commit the sin no more, as a person or an institution. The Catholic Church in Ireland has basically asked the Holy Father, send us “good confessors” to whom we can confess our sins and who will guide us on reclaiming moral high ground we seem to have lost. The Apostolic Visitators to the four archdioceses in Ireland and to the dioceses are all from outside of Ireland but all have born the heat of the day in their own dioceses and can be good confessors to a Church seeking healing and redemption. From the United States, Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston has been appointed by the Pope to perhaps the toughest of situations in the Archdiocese of Dublin and its related suffragan sees (ecclesiastical talk for the dioceses outside of Dublin which come under the loose supervision of the Archbishop of the capital city). At the same time as the whole Church in Ireland will be visited, there will also be a visitation to Ireland’s remaining seminaries led  by our Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York. Archbishop Dolan spoke last week at Ireland’s major remaining seminary, St. Patrick’s in Maynooth and I encourage all of you to take the time to read his lecture by clicking here. Quite frankly, I think he has found the pony! It is a great synthesis of how I think my priests have suffered but made it through the last decade here, in St. Petersburg. Archbishop Dolan’s talk is lengthy but illuminating.

The bishops of the United States, some 210 strong, will be assembling in St. Petersburg starting Monday, June 14, 2010 at the Vinoy Hotel. 212 bishops have registered for an “assembly” which we hold every four years. It is not a business meeting so the media and observers will not be attending. It is closed to all but bishops. It is relaxed and informal. It is something like five days of continuing education and this year the general theme is “the bishop and his priests.” Archbishop Dolan will give the keynote address on Monday night to start us off. It has been my special privilege to be a part of every committee planning the agenda and topics for these assemblies since I was made a bishop and I was chair of the committee which planned the Assembly held in Tucson, Arizona, in June of 1998. We always invite a cardinal from outside the United States to spend the days with us and deliver the homilies at morning and evening prayer throughout the days and at daily Mass, lead our Hly Hours, and our Reconciliation and Penance Service. This year, our “spiritual father” will be  Cardinal Peter Turkson who is from Ghana and was recently asked by Pope Benedict XVI to leave his archdiocese and come to Rome to head the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. I look forward to the Cardinal’s wisdom and insights into being a bishop in the Church and world today. He too will help us try and rediscover the “pony.” Our assemblies are  as I mentioned relaxed. Evenings can be spent in informal conversation with others, there are even new or relatively new movies which the Hollywood studios make available for bishops to see in the evening. If you happen to be in downtown St. Petersburg from Monday, June 14 through Saturday, June 19th and see a group of men in the evening walking through Straub or Vinoy Park, it will likely be some of us.

Relationships between bishops and priests is an important topic because it has changed for the worse since the sexual-abuse controversy of 2001 and following. In many places priests don’t trust their bishops any longer and are terrified that they will receive a call and be asked to come and see the bishop for fear it might be a complaint or something of that nature. Priests and bishops need to search together for the “pony” that remains down there somewhere, as it was before.

I ask your prayers for our Assembly which is being held in our diocese in two weeks. May it be five days of grace, wisdom and insight for those of us who have been asked to lead the Church at this moment in history.

+RNL

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the phosphate ship slamming into the old Skyway Bridge resulting in the loss of both lives and the bridge. I remember that I was in my first year as Rector/President of St. John Vianney College Seminary and we had a number of students from the old St. Petersburg diocese which stretched at that time from Citrus Springs and Crystal River in the North to Ft. Myers Beach in the South. My first prayer was that none of our seminarians’ families were killed in the tragedy. Slowly but surely the seminarians from this diocese contacted their families and were assured of their safety and well-being. Then we prayed, corporately, collectively, and privately for those who died. May they continue to rest in peace.

+RNL

Processional Cross at the Seminary

Homily for the Good Friday Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion

Having just listened to the proclamation of the Passion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ according to John, it seems that even the name we apply to this day in the Christian calendar is something of an oxymoron. To call this Friday “Good” is like speaking of “Irish gourmet cooking.” There is much that reeks of needless tragedy in today’s liturgy and we have to wait until tomorrow night before we can even begin to glean the coming triumph. This day seemingly belongs to the forces of evil, which on their face seem to overcome and conquer the forces of good.

Peter resorts to violence and then denial. Caiphas, the High Priest, simply provides the courtyard in this narrative for denial and cowardice. Pilate, a man of considerable power, acts against his conscience and instincts and gives into the unruly, violent and bloodthirsty crowd ultimately leaving history to judge his cowardice. This panoply, this mosaic of weakness and evil is briefly pierced by the courageous women standing at the foot of the cross: Mary and her sister, Jesus’ aunt Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. Also present was the lone survivor of the twelve with the guts to hang in there with Jesus, John. On its face it seems not to be a great day. Evil seems to have won. Darkness seems to have penetrated the earth. Three years of a ministry of love and service to others in nailed to a crossbar.

I have often asked myself this question on Good Friday: what character in the passion would I most closely imitate if I had been present in Jesus’ life and ministry at the time? As a successor of the apostles would I have saved my own neck like Peter, hidden away in fright and terror in some attic like the other ten of His disciples, or hung in there to the end like the women and John?

And what qualities of character would I have evinced had I been there? Disinterest like Caiphas? Denial like Peter? Crowd-pleaser like Pilate? Believer like John and Mary and the two other Marys? These today must not be simply rhetorical questions. We can take the template of the lives that we lead and place them on our human actions, on our sense of faith, on our belief that Jesus died for us so that we might live for Him and ultimately to be happy with Him in the life that is to come.

If one believes everything about the Church which we read, see or hear today, we too are in the midst of a Good Friday. Just like in the passion and death of Jesus, there are forces in our midst who would be quite happy were we gone. Sensing that our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has something to hide, something to bring him down, relentlessly and loose with the facts they surround the Church today like sharks at feeding time. Mine is a small voice compared to those who are speaking out in the defense of the Church and the Pope these days, but I can assure you that, as a person who has had many, many meetings with Cardinal Ratzinger from 1989-1995, he was one of the few people in Rome who “got it”, understood what was happening to the Church and its moral implications. He took action while others hesitated and he was ahead of the learning curve at the Holy See.

Victims of abuse by clergy, employees, relatives and seeming friends, people of trust and total strangers know what the darkness of Good Friday is like. What was done to them is reprehensible and there is likely never to be a personal triumph following the darkness they have known. Words of apology which are appropriate are also insufficient. It is the actions which the Church in the United States has taken since 2001 that offer the first glimmer of dawn’s early light. We have been able to do what is necessary precisely because of Pope Benedict, not inspite of him.

In every life there are more than one Good Friday. There are those moments when we fail to get our way, when we suffer, economically, psychologically, and emotionally. Do we become so disheartened that we doubt God’s continuing presence in our lives? Do we wash our hands of everything that is not perfect as we define perfection? Can we say with Saint Paul that it is at times when we are weakest that God makes us strong?

In a few moments we will reverence the wood of the cross on which hung the savior of the world. Can we see in these pieces of wood as we approach them the instrument of our eternal salvation? Will the events we today recall renew in us our faith in Christ and our love for the Father? Are we open to the Spirit to get us through what we must endure today to enjoy tomorrow?

Today is dark, foreboding, and tragic. It is necessary, however, for tomorrow’s celebration of triumph. Leave this Church today embracing the cross of Christ in whatever format it takes in your lives with the sure and certain belief that sometime soon, maybe even tomorrow, the strength of faith will give way to the bright promise of immortality. Can one appreciate a sunrise without experiencing the darkness of night? Good Friday is the darkest day in the life of Jesus but His total trust and His incredible unselfishness promise a better moment.

The cross of Christ is the best insurance policy humankind has purchased because it guarantees a destiny, a future where every tear will be wiped away and we will see God as God really is. Behold the wood of the cross, on which hung the savior of the world.

You may also download a PDF of this homily.

Update: You can listen to this homily on our podcast.

St. John Vianney Seminary's Patron Saint and Chapel

I spent the last two days visiting the diocese’s twenty seminarians currently attending St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami. It was something of a “homecoming” for me as I spent five years of my early priesthood on those grounds and to this day believe that there is no more beautiful worship space than the Chapel of St. Raphael found there. I found our men to be quite content, challenged (by both academic requirements as it should be and their wrestling with their vocation) and coherent in sharing where they are at this moment in their journey to priesthood. To a man they expressed admiration for their faculty and spiritual directors, gratitude to the diocese for its support of both place and persons and a growing sense that they are now only three weeks from completing an academic year and returning for the summer. For me it was an “elixir” far better than any medicine.

We have two categories of study at St. John Vianney. The first is called “pre-theology” and it is a program tailored to those candidates who have completed their college education in an institution other than a seminary. It is a two year program of integration into the spiritual life and the study of philosophy as a predicate for moving on to study theology. I am always amazed at the generosity of these men who are in the pre-theology program. It is a requirement of the Program of Priestly Formation which is required by the Holy See of every country in the world. In Miami, the pre-theologians now live adjacent to but off of the campus of the seminary while at the same time taking all classes, meals, and prayer moments with the whole seminary community. Thus, these older men have a quiet place to retire to for study and discernment. We have three men from this diocese in this special program of preparation prior to moving on to St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach for their theological education.

St. John Vianney opened this school year with a record enrollment of seventy four seminarians in six years of education. Nine have subsequently left the seminary since the start and there are currently sixty-five seminarians finishing their course work. All of the men do one afternoon each week of apostolic work (teaching in parish CCD, RCIA programs or working at places like a nursing home to name just a few) and they spend a second afternoon each week in what is called “Work List” or keeping the seminary clean and the grounds immaculate. Often I hear when I visit St. John Vianney how pressed some of the seminarians feel by the demands placed on them for their class work, their spiritual direction, their apostolic and work list time, their prayer time, etc., etc. I am not a particularly receptive audience for such comments as I think that is precisely the life of a priest and lots of other people – too much time and too many expectations. However, this time none of our seminarians complained, at least to me.

The majority of the men are in a typical four year program which leads to a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in philosophy. Philosophy often deals with the world of the abstract and it is always enjoyable for me to engage the men in conversation about how they are faring in this special preparation for the study of theology. All start off skeptical of both the value and their ultimate success in philosophy but as the years go by, almost invariably that grow to appreciate their somewhat unique undergraduate education. They need to be reminded, however, that apart from moving on to theology and priesthood, a major in philosophy and a dollar bill won’t buy one a cup of coffee in today’s world. It is a part of the sacrificial nature of today’s call to priesthood. Happily, St. John Vianney has a great philosophy faculty who make their subjects real, applicable to our theology, and enjoyable to learn. Here is a picture of the men studying at St. John Vianney and their names but not in the order in which they appear in the picture:

Curtis Carro, Chris McBride, Ernest Cannon, Elixavier Castro, Bob Angel, Ryan Boyle, Dan Darmanin, Alex Padilla, Karl Schmidt, Anthony Ustick, Jackson Reeves, Imad El Chiti, Felipe Gonzalez, Chuck Dornquast, Jason Priela, Joseph Plesko, Gregory Visca, Elbert Ballado, Jonathan Stephanz, Sergio Fernandez.

Imad El Chiti will be leaving our diocesan seminarian contingent upon the completion of the academic year for an interesting reason. Imad was born in Lebanon, baptized as a Melkite Rite Catholic but raised in the Maronite Rite. After a year of seminary studies, he approached Father Len Plazewski and asked if he might  be released to study for the Diocese of St. Maron of the Maronite Rite. I gave this permission and he will be starting his theology studies at the Catholic University of America this Fall. I am happy that we were able to assist a sister diocese of the eastern rite in securing the vocation of a very fine man and all his peers and I wish Imad well in the years ahead.

Finally, this  morning I celebrated the community Mass for the seminary at 7:15 a.m. in that beautiful chapel. It was an emotional moment for me as I felt especially blessed by the Lord to have been allowed to live, recover and return to a place where in 1984 I left a part of my heart. It was the Solemnity of St. Joseph and I shared these three special qualities of St. Joseph that we would do well to imitate in our lives and ministry: St. Joseph was a man deeply steeped in and committed to the demands of his Jewish faith; St. Joseph was a man willing to take significant risks for the sake of his wife and child, like taking them back into hated Egypt to escape the jealousy of Herod; and St. Joseph was a man who was willing to put others before himself in a simplicity of life style. No wonder he is the patron of the Church Universal. It was a lovely liturgy as the sun was rising in the east bringing all the promise of yet a new day.

After our private meetings, we all went out to break bread together last night and it was enjoyable to see our seminarians as they took an evening off from the good but institutional food of the seminary. Congratulations are due to Monsignor Michael Carruthers, the Rector-President and to  his faculty and staff. They will soon close the book on another year of service to the dioceses of Florida. Finally, some other pictures of this beautiful campus.

Exterior of the Chapel of St. Raphael

Interior of the Chapel with some candidates for a Miami parish's confirmation praying

I made my first trip outside of the diocese (actually the first night spent in something other than my bed at home or a hospital bed) since July 27th, 2009 on Tuesday. The occasion was two-fold, the twice yearly Board of Trustees meeting of our regional seminary, St. Vincent de Paul in Boynton Beach, which was also held during the once every ten years accreditation visitation by The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (aka “SACS”) and the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and the opportunity to visit our seminarians in theology (there are eight in the five year program and about twenty-two in the college and pre-theology program at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami).

All the bishops of the seven Florida dioceses are owners of the theology seminary and along with about twelve other lay people constitute the Board of Trustees. We meet every February and September and take our faith and fiduciary responsibility seriously. The seminary is an expensive proposition so finances often occupy a great part of our discussion but so do the spiritual, pastoral, academic and student life parts of the five year formation program. The future looks better for St. Vincent’s than the present as the large number of men in the college and pre-theology program suggests enrollment on the order of eighty rather than the present sixty-two.

The seminary passed the tests of the two accrediting associations and has been accredited for an additional ten years. These periodic visitations and evaluations are beneficial, helpful and necessary, but they place enormous pressure on the college and/or university. Several of the ten member visitation team spent time with the Board of Trustees asking us questions both about our engagement with the seminary and our financial commitment to St. Vincent’s. They all left this morning (Thursday) and so did I, but I was the only one on AMTRAK!

Finally, I visited individually with each of our theologians and also took them out to dinner. They are wonderful men and will serve their Lord and yourselves well. Deacons Dominic Corona and Dayan Machado shared their excitement about their impending ordination to the priesthood, reminding me of my own excitement more than thirty-two years ago. They are very happy with their seminary experience and committed to their vocations. Finally, I spent a little time with our Father Michael Muhr who serves as a spiritual director at St. Vincent’s and has for the last nine years. They deeply admire and appreciate his presence at the seminary, even though it is a great sacrifice for us as a local Church. Nonetheless, he is making a great contribution to the future of our Church. I came home happy to have spent this time and effort with our future priests in their formation house.

Finally, I ask all our readers prayers for Bishop John Ricard, the bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee who continues to recover from serious physical challenges and is now in rehab. We missed him at this meeting and I miss him terribly as a friend. Also, my last living uncle and my father’s youngest brother died this morning in Wellesley, Massachusetts. He was the first chief judge of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Superior Court System, visiting professor of trial practice for many years at Harvard Law School and a great uncle modeling integrity and justice. I am not yet approved for flying so I will not be able to attend his funeral on Saturday morning which grieves me deeply. May he rest in peace.

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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