For His Friends

There have been several comments raised to recent blog entries, two of which merit, I think, mention here. First, I was asked if the diocese and Catholic Charities would be of assistance to families seeking to adopt orphans from Haiti. The answer is affirmative when the Haitian and U.S. government come to some agreement on how to handle these requests. It is hard at the moment to discern the mind of the governments involved but assisting in placing orphans and adoptive children has long been Catholic Charities stock in trade. Stay tuned here for more information if a “breakthrough” materializes.

Someone has asked why I have not signed on to the  MANHATTAN DECLARATION. Philosophically and ecclesiologically I am deeply devoted to the structure, purpose and  collegial nature of our episcopal conference, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. They speak for me when they pass something as a body or delegate our President to speak on our behalves. Prior to 1984 no bishop would have thought of signing onto documents originating elsewhere. While I accept the purpose and principles of the  MANHATTAN DECLARATION, I  personally prefer to allow the Conference to speak for me on matters of public policy. It is in my DNA so be you will need to be patient with me once again. I have no case against those bishops who do not feel similarly constrained and publicly acknowledge that it is a “thing with me.”

Hope these two responses are illuminative and helpful.

+RNL

Please excuse my absence from this blog but I am having a challenge focusing my eyes after all the surgeries. This too will pass. What follows is a report to the Board of CRS about our work the last week in Haiti. It is for precisely this that I sought your generous assistance last week and this.

+RNL

NEW DEVELOPMENTS:

On the morning of January 20^th, a 6.1 magnitude aftershock hit off the coast of Haiti, about 6.2 miles deep, about 35 miles west-southwest of the capital of Port-au-Prince (PaP).  The Caritas PaP team reported that it was not strongly felt, though further structural damage is a possibility, and further assessments closer to the epicenter are still needed.

Highlights from Situation Report #8.1

• The Government has devised eight zones for the distribution of humanitarian assistance.  Each zone will receive direct support by a national minister to coordinate the relief effort.
• A UN assessment team reported that Leogane and Gressier are the most severely damaged areas west of Port-au-Prince.  Road access west of PaP is generally good (two lanes paved in most parts).  Power remains off in all areas assessed, although the electricity distribution system appears mostly intact.  Numerous makeshift camps have been established near the main road west from Port-au-Prince.
• A sufficient number of water treatment systems have been reported in metropolitan PaP.  However, the USAID/DART anticipates greater need for water treatment centers outside metropolitan PaP, a prediction that the humanitarian community is working to assess.
• In addition to being the lead agency for the Petonville Club camp (golf course in PaP), CRS has been designated as lead agency for coordinating relief efforts in the town of Legoane, due west of PaP.  CRS will primarily be responsible for basic needs (food, water, non-food items, including nurse/doctor teams as available).
• Staff continues to assess needs and coordinate with Church partners and other agencies to plan larger and more organized food distribution activities.  Yesterday, CRS loaded three 2-ton trucks of food to be distributed by the National Catechists’ Committee in areas of PaP.
• The Haitian Ministry of Health has defined three levels of healthcare:  mobile health centers, fixed health centers (minor health problems) and hospitals with surgical capacities. CRS and the University of Maryland are continuing collaboration to respond to medical needs, prioritizing the mobilization of shock trauma staff.
• CRS continues to work with the USCCB to develop and provide materials for US constituents eager to get involved and staying abreast of advocacy issues such as interest in adoption of Haitian children and temporary protective status for Haitians already in the US.
• The search and rescue team working through the Caritas team recovered two women from the Cathedral.  Sadly, they also found the body of the Vicar General of PaP, Monsignor Charles Benoit.
• The funeral of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the Archbishop of PaP, will take place on Saturday, January 23^rd.  Archbishop Dolan, Ken Hackett, Annemarie Reilly and Msgr. David Malloy will join the senior CRS staff in country to attend the funeral and to bring medical supplies.

Exactly a week ago today, I entered the operating arena for the 4th time since July 27th 2009.  The surgery that I underwent a week ago tonight lasted 6 hours, and was challenging due to the surgeon’s need to skillfully avoid scar tissue areas from previous surgeries.  He removed my gallbladder as planned, sewed me back up, and I found myself in the familar territory of my room and with my nursing friends.  I am doing well, but progress is slow in certain areas.  Yesterday and today, they had me up walking, and that is a sure and certain sign that I am on the mend.  I suspect, but have no sure and certain knowledge that I will probably be discharged just before Christmas, but not then in new and minted condition.  Thanks for all of your prayers, and I’ll keep you informed from this site about every three days.

+RNL

Laying Hands on Bishop Etienne as part of the Rite of Ordination. Photo courtesy of John Christian.

Yesterday, December 9th, I flew out and back to Cheyenne, Wyoming for the ordination of my friend and former colleague, Bishop Paul Etienne, as a bishop. It would never have been possible for me to do that were it not for a generous friend who made his private plane available for the round trip in one day.  I attach here my Homily for the Occasion which I hope you will enjoy as the people of the Church of Wyoming seemed to appreciate it.

Preaching the Homily at Bishop Paul Etienne's Ordination. Photo courtesy of John Christian.

No more blogs from me till I am well enough  to resume, probably in about one week. Let us pray for one another and seek God’s help as we prepare to celebrate again the birth of the Messiah.

+RNL

As regular readers of this space know, since discharge from the hospital on September 1st I have always has the specter of returning one more time to the hospital for what I hope will be the final surgery. Following the emergency surgery in early August for the removal of the infections which threatened my life, I have known and understood that one more major surgical procedure would be required. In that surgery, the ileostomies would be reversed, the colon would be reconnected and there was a possibility that my gall bladder would be removed as stones were discovered on the CAT-SCAN which preceded the emergency surgery. Well, the day for the reversal surgery is here and I will be operated on for the third, and please God and hopefully, the final time on Thursday, December 10th.

My doctors are in agreement that I am now strong enough to endure the reversal procedures and the sooner this is done and recovery completed, the sooner I will be back and doing the things a bishop should do. I have been told that hospitalization this time will most likely be a week to ten days, and recovery four to six weeks, this compared to five weeks in July and August in the hospital (four weeks in CPICU) and three months and then days in recovery at home.

My office will keep the diocese informed of my progress on this site and the diocesan web site (http://www.dosp.org) . While I enjoy the same rights of privacy as everyone else, the position of leadership which I hold compels me to be straight-forward and honest in letting the priests, deacons, religious and faithful of the diocese know what is going on.

May I ask several special favors: please no flowers, cards, expressions of good cheer. I know you will be praying for me and that is more than enough. Also, the hospital was very grateful last time for some severe restrictions on visitors. They can be disruptive of recovery and, in my case, challenge the staff of the hospital to do their work not just for me but for the other patients. I would much rather be out and among you doing what I should be doing and that will come sooner as recovery progresses. As soon as I can I will resume my commitment to this blog and am certain that we will be communicating again well before Christmas.

My prayer for six months has been and remains the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer:” fiat voluntas tua “or “Not my will, Lord, but yours be done.”

I hope to see many of you soon and be assured of my prayers and best wishes for a most blessed Christmas.

+RNL

I am fairly certain that it was about a year ago that I began this effort at “blogging” when on the way home on AMTRAK from the annual bishops’ meeting in Baltimore, I wrote my first entry. It is an  effort which I  have enjoyed immensely and I am grateful for all the compliments and even the occasional criticism which have met my various efforts. Next week the bishops will be meeting again in Baltimore but I am unable yet to be present. I regret this reality but accept it as an additional part of the occasional suffering and disappointment which accompanies my long recovery.

I spent last night reading the materials for next week’s meeting. The public agenda is rather light and the “Executive Session” agenda looks interesting as it always does. A recent trend which I have alluded to in the past is to put the more important issues requiring discussion and discernment into “Executive Session” and place only those items which are ready for final debate and vote into the open, public sessions. This trend would deeply bother many of the bishops I knew well and admired from the late seventies and eighties who were pleased with the move to openness and transparency but we are a different breed of “bishop-cat” these days, preferring not to air certain issues in public until they are ripe and ready.

What I will do this year since I will have the time is provide my own comments and thoughts on matters before the bishops each day of the meeting and at the conclusion of the daily sessions. Obviously, I will not be privy to closed session discussions and even if I were, I would respect the confidentiality of those meetings. To do otherwise would be “going rogue” as we have recently come to understand that phrase.

Looking back on my year in the blogosphere, I am learning still. I think I made a good decision in the beginning to allow my readers to share comments with me but not publish them. I prefer catechesis to confrontation and have no desire to enter into polemical jousting with anyone. Most of the comments have been helpful and constructive – some, especially from those engaged in keeping “Hillsborough Cares”  from coming into existence have been vicious. But I read them all and have corrected some errors in my own work as a result of the constructive criticism which has come my way through the “comments.”

Finally, if it is indeed an anniversary for the “Blog” it can right be celebrated by all of us, not just myself. Thanks for listening, reading and responding over the last twelve months.

Bishop Lynch