Saturday, December 22, 2007

For man of God, it's about people

Tom Heinen reports in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on yesterday's ordination of William P. Callahan as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.


"Our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald for December 20, 2007 included a special section with print-only content on Bishop Callahan. Amy Guckeen reported in the story "Basilica renovation a labor of love" on then-Father Callahan's overseeing the 1994-2001 restoration of the Basilica of St. Josaphat.
New light fixtures were fabricated to replicate the originals, thanks to the sneaky hand of Bishop Callahan, who, as an associate pastor of the basilica in 1977, hid an original light fixture in the basilica attic for fear of it being thrown away, only to unearth it at a timely meeting.

I wonder if that attic has anything else that was thrown away in the seventies that turned out to be better than what was kept.

Brian T. Olszewski reported that the new "Auxiliary will spend first three months learning archdiocese". Then,
The ordination of Bishop Callahan also makes it possible for the bishops to do pastoral visits of parishes--what Archbishop Dolan termed "systematic, canonical visitations" in which the bishops go the parishes, celebrate Masses, and meet with parishioners, staff, parish council, school personnel and others. They also review the parish records.

"Within seven years I would like to do a systematic visit of every parish in the archdiocese," the archbishop said.

I've heard these visits included a bishop spending the weekend in the rectory, if you remember rectories.

An unattributed article, "Archdiocese's auxiliary bishops diverse, talented group", included this on Bishop Leo Brust,auxiliary 1969 to 1995. He had served as chancellor from 1948 to 1969.
From his chancery experience, Bishop Brust knew every priest and property in the archdiocese. He had been one of the quiet planners of archdiocesan growth. Pouring over telephone company utility data, Bishop Brust carefully plotted the areas where parishes and schools would be built, personally surveyed the land, often after Masses on Sunday, and then arranged for its purchase. In that capacity, Bishop Brust helped direct the suburban growth of the archdiocese.

Today planning has grown a bit more complicated.

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