I am approaching the two-year anniversary of my ordination as an auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. As I travel around, I am asked a lot of questions like: “What’s the most enjoyable thing about being a bishop? What has been the most difficult thing? What has been the most surprising thing?”
I find myself a little disappointed when I’m unable to give good answers to these questions; I was reflecting on them lately, especially the one about what’s been most surprising. I would say it has been refreshingly surprising how I have been able to connect with so many people, parishes, priests and bishops. In the past week or so, I presided at two confirmation Masses at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, confirming almost 300 young people from eight different parishes. I’m able to celebrate these beautiful Masses with priests and parishioners from across the archdiocese. A few days ago, I had an all-school Mass at St. Agnes in St. Paul that included almost 800 students. I get to celebrate these types of school Masses and parish Masses all the time. The other day, I was blessed to attend a talk by Msgr. James Shea at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. And just a few days ago, I got together with my brother bishops from Minnesota for a day at the Minnesota State Capitol.
If you had asked me two years ago what I was expecting the life a bishop to be like, I might have answered with something like: “More meetings and more time stuck at my desk.” But that has not been the case. I am connecting with more people than ever, and in a greater variety of ways than I could have ever imagined.
Father John Riccardo once said, “Priests forgo marriage and family primarily (not exclusively, but primarily) to care for marriages and families.” It struck me that as a bishop, I’m giving up being a pastor of a big parish and a big school, so that I might serve more parishes and more schools. In a strange way, it’s been a blessing. I am able to be in contact with more parishioners in the archdiocese and able to be a spiritual father to even more people.
A big part of our Catholic faith is relationships and making connections. This reminds me of our synod experiences here in the archdiocese. Technically, a synod is a gathering of Church leaders to address a particular topic or topics in the Church. The literal definition of this word, synod, is to meet together or walk with. One of the primary focuses of any synod is to come together, make connections and form relationships.
We don’t want to confuse our local synod with the Synod on Synodality that was recently held in Rome. You may recall that Archbishop Bernard Hebda called his initial Archdiocesan Synod a few years ago, held Pentecost weekend in 2022. The fruits included a first-year focus on small groups, which are all about coming together, making connections, forming relationships and sharing the faith. The second-year focus, our current year, has been on the Mass. Of course, a big part of Mass is Communion — being in union with Jesus, in union with what we believe as Catholics, and in union with one another.
We have another Archdiocesan Synod coming up on June 7, which could be looked at as a continuation of Archdiocesan Synod 2022. Our hope is to become better at sharing the good news and we can only accomplish this if we are talking to each other.
As I travel across the archdiocese and meet parishioners from various parishes, I realize the value in staying connected. Some of the things I will often hear as I visit parishes are: “We love our pastor, you had better not move him, (and) our parish is doing great things.” If a parish is accomplishing amazing things, there should be a way of sharing that with other parishes. We accomplish that sharing in synods. We walk together and share our various approaches of being Church as parishes. Similarly, the archdiocese is working to help aid youth groups, faith formation groups, adult education groups and others to share their ways of evangelization and in so doing, create greater regional alignment and parish cooperation in these critical ministry areas.
It was, of course, Pope Francis who called for the Synod on Synodality in Rome, but before him Pope Benedict XVI often spoke about the creativity and fruitfulness of coming together as a communion of persons, rather than individuals.
In the end, I think we have many good reasons to look forward to the Archdiocesan Synod 2025. It is about accompaniment, it is about evangelizing, and it is about a way of being Church. But through our different yearly initiatives — like small groups and teachings on the Mass — our Archdiocesan Synod is ultimately about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in more effective ways. For me, it’s about making more connections with my ever-growing spiritual family.
ARCHDIOCESAN SYNOD 2025
How does Archdiocesan Synod 2025 fit in with the other synod efforts? In many ways Archdiocesan Synod 2025 is a continuation of Archdiocesan Synod 2022. The propositions being discussed are the top 12 vote-getters from 2022 and the Archdiocesan Synod 2022 members were the first to be invited back as members of Archdiocesan Synod 2025. Archbishop Bernard Hebda specifically mentioned June 7, the date of the 2025 Archdiocesan Synod in his pastoral letter, saying members would come back together to discuss the upcoming years of implementation. The work of implementation continues throughout and beyond 2025.
