For His Friends

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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Fourteen years ago this afternoon (at two ‘clock p.m.) I was ordained and installed as the fourth bishop of St. Petersburg. It was a wonderful moment that I recall every year in a special way on my anniversary date and I recall it at Mass with special prayers of love and thanksgiving for the priests, deacons, religious and laity of the diocese who have embraced me, occasionally and properly upbraided me, but who on the whole have strongly supported my ministry among you. It didn’t take you long to figure out that I was not an ideologue but a mediator looking for common ground; it did not take you long to learn that I preferred a Gospel of ‘HOPE” to a more punitive reading of the same; it did not take you long to realize that I preferred collaboration and consultation to an autocratic style. For most of you this has been just fine. For some I have been a keen disappointment but the genius of our Church governance is that one never has to wait long for another day, another leader, another theory of management and leadership. To those whom I have disappointed be patient, with me and with the Church you love. To those whom I have pleased, continue to pray for me, my health, my spirituality, my peace and serenity with who I am and why God has now left me here, To all of you, regardless, thanks for this fourteen year love affair. Unconditionally and irrefutably I can say fourteen years later, I love you just as much as I did on my ordination day – no, even more.

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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.

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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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Deacon John Lipscomb is presented as a candidate for priestly ordination

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Deacon John Lipscomb stands as he is presented to Archbishop Favalora by Fr. Len Piotrowski (not pictured) as a candidate for ordination to the priesthood.

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

Our diocese was singularly blessed yesterday by the ordination of nineteen new deacons to serve in our parishes and institutions. They have been studying and preparing for eight years, probably the longest period of formation in the United States (four years in the Lay Pastoral Ministry Institute and four more in the deacon formation program. One can not easily calculate the time spent in class. But they persevered and prospered. All their hopes and dreams became a reality yesterday morning at St. Jude’s Cathedral as Bishop John Noonan, Auxiliary Bishop of Miami, imposed his hands on each of the men asking the Holy Spirit to impart the power of the office on each of them. In the front rows of the pews were their wives, children, and parents, so proud and beaming. And there was their bishop unable to perform the ordination rite at home praying for them and asking the Lord for the gift of coming to the Cathedral for a few words at the conclusion of the two hour ceremony. God heard my prayers and I made it.

Bishop Lynch with some of the newly ordained deacons. (Photo by Ed Foster Jr.)

When the fathers at the Second Vatican Council restored the  married diaconate, it was clear that it was something envisioned for the mission countries of the third world. Instead, the United States has the highest number and percentage of married deacons in the world and the mission Churches have not utilized the opportunity choosing lay catechists and leaders instead. Having listened to the late Cardinals Dearden of Detroit and Bernardin of Chicago express their doubts about the new phenomenon of all these new deacons and their fear of the “clericalization” of the laity, I began my service here as bishop with certain doubts – enough to seek a seven year hiatus in preparing new deacons while we evaluated what we had. Our pastors convinced me that the diaconate has been enormously helpful in their ministry in the parishes and their work in the prisons, jails and the Port of Tampa filled holes in our ministry for which there simply were no priests. I was wrong in my reservations and about five years ago we began plans to prepare more men for this ministry of service.

Four years ago twenty-six men started their final four years of formation. Nineteen persevered. We contracted with St. Leo University to see to their theological and pastoral formation. They attended classes during the week and on week-ends. With the loving support of their spouses and the patience of their children, year by year they came closer to their goal and then there was yesterday. Today at Sunday Mass they began their ministry. They can preach, baptize, witness marriages and assist at the altar. Many of them will help in the RCIA and have a hand in religious formation in their parishes. Some of them may ultimately administer some of our smaller parishes if the number of priests available requires it. Even though we have the greatest number of men in the seminary in our forty-one years as a diocese, there will always be a need for deacons.

They promise not to marry should or when their spouses are call home to God. They are generally not paid and promise ten percent of their time assisting in their assignments. They must now, as of this class, be prepared to serve where ever they are sent and since they are clergy, they now with this class come under the Clergy Personnel Board for assignment. Several of the new ordinands were asked to serve other than their home parishes where my Personnel Board felt their was a real need and they graciously accepted.

I feel very good about these nineteen men. If your parish receives one of them as a deacon you will be lucky. Congratulations to them are in order and to our local Church.

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Updated: Watch Bishop Lynch’s Remarks at the Ordination