Theology on Tap puts Bishop Blair in the hot seat |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS BERTKE, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 26 March 2010 00:00 |
FOSTORIA—Bishop Leonard P. Blair recounted his memories of Pope John Paul II, discussed the issue of parish closings and shared his reasons for being Catholic with an audience of about 75 people in Fostoria March 4.
The bishop discussed these and other topics during an hour-long question and answer session at The R Place as part of Theology on Tap, a monthly Catholic program for young adults that was introduced in Fostoria last fall.
Bishop Leonard P. Blair answers a question submitted by an audience member at a Theology on Tap program in Fostoria. (Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens Bertke)
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Most questions were submitted in writing by the audience members and read aloud by Phil Smith, a program coordinator and seminarian who is completing his pastoral internship at Fostoria St. Wendelin this year.
Regarding Pope John Paul II, Bishop Blair expressed “the greatest admiration” for the late pontiff.
“I’ve started to always call him Pope John Paul the Great, and there are very few popes in 2,000 years that are called the Great, but I really think he had that kind of impact,” said Bishop Blair.
He said it was his “great privilege” to work in the Vatican for the Secretariat of State at the “very height” of Pope John Paul’s papacy.
From his experiences, the bishop also recalled Pope John Paul as “a very playful person, a very lighthearted person.”
Bishop Blair told how he was called on one day to help the pope with his pronunciation as he was videotaping a message in English.
“I was terrified,” said the bishop. “He was in a hurry to catch an airplane.”
The pope read the statement and when he looked up, Bishop Blair corrected him on his pronunciation of the word “intimacy.” After the pope reread that sentence, Bishop Blair looked down at his paper and began to say, “And then, Holy Father …”
He stopped when he looked up and saw the pope sitting behind his desk, shaking a fist at him with “this real funny look on his face,” said Bishop Blair. “Everybody in the room started to laugh, and I said, ‘Well, Holy Father, maybe that wasn’t so important.’ ”
Asked about why the diocese closed so many parishes in recent years, Bishop Blair noted such parish closings are taking place in dioceses across the country today.
“We live in a very different world than we did when those parishes were established. The old rule in the 19th century was if somebody had to go more than an hour in a horse and buggy, they would look to create a new parish,” said Bishop Blair.
“It’s a bishop who establishes a parish, and every bishop has to take the overall view of the common good of the whole diocese, and we establish parishes over time to respond to the needs as they exist,” Bishop Blair continued. “But when times change, sometimes those parishes and schools have to change as well.”
Though the bishop said he cannot rule out the possibility of future closings, he said it is not his intention to close more parishes and any additional closings would not be on the scale of those that took place in 2005.
“We had planned, even back in 2005, that some parishes would share a pastor,” he added. “And I don’t think that’s unreasonable.”
The bishop was also asked to discuss the factors that affect pastoral assignments.
He does not make the decisions on his own, he explained, but in consultation with a group of priests who are elected to serve on the priests personnel board.
“They discuss at great length all the possibilities and the people who have expressed an interest, what the needs of the people are — because I have to tell you honestly, I think of this very much, I’m not just there to look out for the priests, I have to look out for the people,” said Bishop Blair. “There may be a priest who’s happy where he’s at, but maybe his health doesn’t permit him anymore to really do what he needs to do. I might have to ask him to step down because of the people.
“Priests can express an interest in where they’d like to go, but sometimes I have to ask a priest to go because he’s really the right person, even though he might not have expressed an interest,” added the bishop.
One question submitted by an audience member simply asked the bishop to pray for “two friends who are not doing well, both with cancer.”
“I certainly will,” Bishop Blair responded. “I have gotten to the point where every day because so many people ask, and I have to say my memory’s not all that good … I always say a prayer for all those to whom I’ve promised to pray, and especially every night ask Our Lady to take these prayers and place them before our Lord.”
Bishop Blair was also asked to share his reasons for being Catholic during the program.
“Why should anybody be a Catholic? Because of the thing that the modern world doesn’t believe exists anymore, and that is truth,” said Bishop Blair.
“Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict have spent all their time talking about this. But our world is skeptical about truth; it doesn’t believe there’s any absolute truth. You have yours, I have mine, who’s to say? But to be a Catholic, and I would submit to be a Christian, you are a Christian because you believe the truth of Jesus Christ — that He is the Way, and the Truth and the Life; and furthermore, to be a member of the body of Christ and to be a part of Christ, you have to be a member of His body; and to be a member of His body is to be a member of the Church. He said you cannot have life within you unless you eat my body and drink my blood, and where are you going to get that, except in the church?
“So ultimately the simple answer is, I am a Catholic because I believe it’s true,” said Bishop Blair. “And I don’t believe that there’s any other place to find the fullness of that truth.”
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 May 2010 13:48 |
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