Installation of a Bishop

Today Bishop Kevin Rhoades was installed as the Bishop of the Diocese of Ft. Wayne/South Bend.

Photo: Bishop Rhoades at Solemn Vespers at St Matthew's Co-Cathedral in South Bend, from the South Bend Tribune

Rhoades!

Yesterday it was announced in Rome that Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Harrisburg will be installed as the new bishop of the Diocese of Ft. Wayne/South Bend.

Our new bishop-designate is wasting no time in surveying his new charge. --Or maybe, dear Bishop D'Arcy is wasting no time in finally passing it on! The morning found the two bishops at the Cathedral in Ft. Wayne, the evening at the Vigil Mass at Notre Dame, and at night, vespers at St. Matthew's Cathedral in South Bend. (Ft. Wayne/South Bend is one of the few dioceses with co-cathedrals)

Yesterday was also the closing day of the Center for Ethics and Culture's 9th Annual Conference (this year entitled "The Summons of Freedom: Virtue, Sacrifice and the Common Good"), which brought the bishops to Notre Dame. Bishop D'Arcy was already scheduled to say the Saturday Vigil Mass in the Basilica for the conference. After the announcement of the bishop was made, the electrifying news quickly spread through conference attendees: Bishop D'Arcy would be bringing Bishop Rhoades!

One of my friends observed, as we were preparing for Mass: "A bishop's announced, and look at how many priests come out of the woodwork." Fr. Hesburgh was present to greet the bishops. Fr. Jenkins, surprisingly, was absent, but sent Fr. McDonald as his representative.

Bishop D'Arcy warmly welcomed not only the conference participants, but also members of NDResponse who had greeted him as he arrived at the Basilica.

At the end of Mass, Bishop Rhoades spoke for a few minutes. He graciously addressed the university, but more specifically the Center for Ethics and Culture (which, it should be noted, lost funding from the university administration earlier this year). He praised the Center, the conference and its participants for being good examples of positive contributors to the Church.

After the Mass, the Bishops stayed around to greet the congregation - again, mostly participants of the Center's conference.

Bishop D'Arcy introduces Sr. Ann Astell of the ND Theology faculty to Bishop Rhoades
Photo: me 11/14/09

On a personal note: Bishop Rhoades was delighted to hear I was from Maryland. He immediately mentioned Mount St. Mary's and his time as rector there - it seems he was quite fond of his time there. I'm glad. I'm sure that experience will be very useful in dealing with Our Lady's University.

And in other news, my friends spent a good part of the day and the closing banquet of the conference trying to figure out what "Kevin" is in Latin.


P.S. Some Articles on the News:

The South Bend Tribune

The Notre Dame Observer
Rhoades - on Whispers in the Loggia

Bishop D'Arcy at St. Patrick's

I've been wanting to blog for a while now, and haven't. But, today is a good day to finally get around to it. I never finished my last string of half-written posts.

What makes today so special? Bishop John D'Arcy!

This morning at 7:45 at St Patrick's (arguably the most beautiful church in South Bend - not Notre Dame) the pastor bonus of this diocese came and offered a pontifical low Mass in the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite. It was a most beautiful Mass!



In his sermon he emphasized the importance of the Mother Guerin Community to the diocese, and of the diocese and bishop to us.


After Mass, he joined us briefly in the parish hall for coffee and a potluck breakfast.



He led us in prayer before the meal.



Here he is with Fr. George Gabet, F.S.S.P., the usual celebrant of this Mass, and Fr. Leonard Chrobot, pastor of St. Patrick's.

Some of the children of the community presented him with flowers, which he later presented to a statue of the Blessed Mother before leaving us to go say Mass at St. Joseph's (a C.S.C. parish also in South Bend) for the celebration of the feast of Bl. Basil Moreau.



There was a wonderful representation of the community - mostly "townies" (as it very well should be) - but also a nice selection of Notre Dame students, both undergrad and grad, faculty and staff. I was pleased to see a respectable number of departments represented.

I image more pictures and reports will follow soon on the Mother Guerin Blog.


Remember to keep Bishop D'Arcy, and all of our bishops, in your prayers!


P.S. all photos by me, and many thanks to "Bishop Neumann" for loaning me his camera since mine has come to a very sad end and now sits broken and just about entirely useless. :-(

O Sapientia

O Sapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti,
attingens a fine usque ad finem,
fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia:
veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

Ralph Vaughan Williams - Mass in G Minor

Ralph Vaughan Williams - I first encountered his work singing in Notre Dame's Women's Liturgical Choir. His beautiful work has a very moving, haunting quality.

While doing a little research, I was very surprised to discover that he was an agnostic. I had figured he was a High Church Anglican given the impassioned character of his sacred music.

In 1921 he composed his Mass in G minor. Dedicated to his friend and fellow fantastic composer Gustav Holst. It was the first distinctively English Mass to be written since the 16th century. According to the almighty Wikipedia:
"Though the first performance was in a concert venue, Vaughan Williams intended the mass to actually be used in a liturgical setting." Interesting intent for an agnostic composer.

It is a beautiful Mass setting.

Kyrie - Mass in G Minor - R. Vaughan Williams

If only!

Generate a Barack Obama Quote!

"I think it's time we had a national conversation about heterodoxy. We need to get past all the gather hymnals and recognize that we are our own best hope for overcoming bongo drums. We need maniples , not heretics. Maniples are our sanctity. And we need to have change in heterodoxy."
Generate your Barack Obama quote at Buttafly.com

I BELIEVE IN MANIPLES!



If only he did too.


More like Johnny Domer runs for president

HT to Thornie and thanks to Gianna for playing Mad Libs with me on this one :-)

Alternate versions supplied by the generator:

"These people haven't had sanctity for fifty years. So you can't be surprised if they get bitter and cling to their gather hymnals and their heretics and their bongo drums. That's what my campaign is about. Teaching all the little people in this country that they can have maniples."

"You know, there's a lot of talk in this country about heterodoxy. Well I think Americans are tired of the same old gather hymnals. Ordinary Americans believe in maniples , they want less heretics, they just aren't sure if their leaders believe in sanctity."

Bishop O'Brien Restricts Legionaries & Regnum Christi

Interesting -

Baltimore archbishop restricts Legionaries' work - article at CNS

Archbishop O'Brien's very pastoral, but authoritative, letter is here. It's worth the quick read. It's very interesting.

Stay tuned for possible commentary.