Choosing new area bishop may take months

Last week, Pope Francis appointed Bishop James Johnston Jr. to serve as bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese.

When Johnston takes the helm there Nov. 4, the process of finding a new bishop for Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese will begin.

The Rev. David Hulshof, pastor at St. Vincent De Paul Parish in Cape Girardeau, said even though the diocese will be without a bishop for several months, it will continue to function.

"It doesn't mean there's no leadership," he said. "It's just that there's no apostolic leadership. There's still the day-to-day function of the diocese."

He said it means in the interim, no major actions will be taken, such as transferring priests between parishes, but administrative tasks will be handled. The administrator during a bishop's absence -- during which the diocese is referred to as "in vacancy" -- typically is a senior priest within the diocese.

Rev. David Hulshof

While nothing has been announced yet, during past vacancies, Monsignor Thomas Reidy was tasked with chief administrative duties.

"He's been more or less the right-hand man to [Bishop Johnston] over in Springfield," Hulshof said, adding it wouldn't be a surprise if the chancellor of the diocese were asked to handle it again in November.

Direct line

The process of finding a new bishop, because it's a papal appointment, begins in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese but goes all the way to the Vatican.

"Bishops are chosen by the Holy See," said the Rev. Allen Saunders, pastor at the cathedral of St. Mary of the Annunciation in Cape Girardeau. "The average person doesn't have much say in that."

Somewhere in the Vatican is an office that deals solely with finding, vetting and presenting potential bishops to be ordained by the pontiff, because 10 to 20 dioceses around the world typically are in vacancy at any given time.

The office, called the Congregation for Bishops, typically meets twice a month to discuss candidates and, when ready, advance three candidates per diocese -- sometimes with a recommendation -- to the pope for the final decision.

But the process gets rolling far before it gets to the Vatican. Bishops sometimes submit recommendations to the archbishop of their respective province for priests they believe have what it takes to lead.

When necessary, bishops gather for a province meeting to discuss which of the men who have been recommended would be a good fit for the diocese.

A good fit for the area

The needs of a diocese vary and are determined by demographics, location and other factors, Hulshof said. The Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, for example, spans 39 counties -- most of them rural -- and counted 66,000 Catholics in 2013.

"So when they make recommendations for this diocese in Springfield-Cape Girardeau, some of the recommendations you'd like to have in a man here is someone who's comfortable in a rural setting," he said. "You don't want someone 'big-city' -- you're looking for someone who's comfortable in a rural setting."

Being in the heartland, the local diocese shares the lower half of Missouri with a host of other Christian denominations, Hulshof pointed out.

"You're also looking for someone who's ecumenically minded, a person who works well with other ministers," he said, "somebody who has that kind of outreach and is good at working with other churches."

And bishop is not an idle position by any means. Travel is a reality, at least in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese. Johnston made a point of visiting each one of the parishes that fell under his 25,000-square-mile purview as frequently as possible.

"We're going to be sad to lose him. We understand he's serving the larger needs of the church, but he had a lot of these qualities we're talking about," Hulshof said. "You're hearing that from the pope more and more, that (bishops) need to be pastoral. ... 'I want to make sure that they get their hands dirty, make sure they're out there among the flock.'"

He said it would behoove the next bishop to be bilingual, but a candidate who isn't wouldn't be a deal-breaker.

It's a process

Once the province has found suitable candidates, they take them to what's called the Apostolic Nuncio -- the pope's emissary in the U.S. -- who relays it to the Congregation for Bishops.

The entire process, Saunders said, varies in length.

"There's no typical thing there, either," he said. "We're guess-timating six months, but sometimes it's about that, sometimes it's not. [The Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese] waited five months, roughly."

One thing, however, is typical of these decisions: Bishops are rarely appointed directly from the diocese in which they serve.

""It's not impossible. ... The Bishop of the Fort Worth diocese was ordained from a Fort Worth parish," Saunders said.

But, he said, it's more likely the new bishop will be from somewhere outside the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese. Hulshof said this actually could make the eventual transition run more smoothly.

"Now, this is my own opinion, but it might be more challenging for a man who's served in a diocese and formed relationships there," he said, likening it to the same reason pastors aren't normally assigned to the parish in their hometowns.

"It allows a new [bishop] who's coming in to say to a priest, 'I need you here, in this area or that area,' and he's not hindered by a friendship or something that might get in the way," he said.

"We've been blessed in this diocese with very good bishops, and our hope and prayer is it will continue to be so," Hulshof said. "I always appreciate the prayers of the readers for the benefit of Bishop Johnston ... and for another good selection."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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