A Tale of Two Bishops

Bishop Stika interacting with the children at Mass

As I mentioned in my previous post, yesterday I met Bishop Richard Stika when he came to my son's school, St. Joseph, to say Mass for the children.  If Catholic bishops should be held accountable to their flock, I do not think I am remiss in stting down some of my observations regarding Bishop Stika and Bishop Tod Brown, of the Diocese of Orange, who was my former bishop.  My one-time encounter with Bishop Stika was so remarkably different than my previous ones with Brown.

Let me begin by saying when I left California in June, I had been a parishioner at St. Joseph Church in Santa Ana for 15 years.  During that time, I can only recall one time Bishop Brown graced us with his presence.  It was in November 2005 at the installation Mass for our pastor, Fr. John Moneypenny.  I was one of the Lectors and was waiting, along with the other liturgical ministers, in the Sacristy with our parochial vicar at the time, Fr. Michael St. Paul.  The Bishop remained sequestered in the rectory, with his secretary popping in and out of the sacristry to warn us that the bishop had certain expectations of the Mass that had to be met, including starting on time and making sure there was nothing to make it go wrong.  His Grace finally emerged a couple of minutes before the Mass was to begin.  At that point, Fr. Michael suggested we join hands for a quick prayer - what, less than 30 seconds? - as was our tradition at St. Joseph.  Bishop Brown fair snapped off his head - "We don't have time for that now, let's go!" and he brusquely headed out.  As for us lay ministers, he did not even acknowledge us, not even to say hello.  I have been at liturgies presided by Brown since then - it is rare he proclaims the Gospel and rarer still that he gives the Homily.  What he does seem to bring to the Mass is the feeling he has better things to do than to be there. The one time I heard him bring any sense of personality to a sermon was when he gave the eulogy for Bishop McFarland, and even then, I could not help but think he was looking over the packed house, wondering how many people would show up for his funeral.

My next personal meeting with Bishop Brown occurred in 2010 at a stewardship conference in San Diego.  After the sessions were done for the day, a group of us from the parish planned to head out for dinner, but before we could, we had to at least show up for a drink at the cocktail reception that Bishop Brown was hosting for the people from his diocese.  Fair enough - we grabbed a glass of wine and a table, and waited for the bishop to make his rounds.  When he got to our table, Fr. John stood to introduce Brown to me and another woman.  Before he could even say a word, Brown looked at me, did a sharp uplift of his chin in "greeting", did the same to the other woman, and wordlessly moved on.  Later whe he said, "I've met all of you in the room tonight," I was sore tempted to yell out, "No, no, you didn't!"
Last year my daughter was chosen as St. Joseph's Altar Server of the Year, so I went to the special Mass so she could get her recognition.  I purposely positioned myself at the end of an aisle, camera in hand, and as Brown passed, I said to him, "T-Dawg . . . wassup?" and returned the chin salute.  I snapped this picture from my waist as I did so.

Childish of me?  Yes, I suppose so.  I had thought about sending him a letter to inform him that in the Hispanic culture - the other woman who received his flippant greeting was Mexican-American and was very offended - his "chin salute" is considered vulgar . . . but why?  I don't think it would have helped.  After the Mass for the altar servers he posed for pictures with the children, occasionally putting on a tight, thin smile, but mostly remaining grim and certainly not making any conversation with the families.  I asked my daughter if she wanted to get her picture taken with Brown.  She looked over at him and said, Nah . . . let's go grab some lunch."

I know of several occasions when his priests have been side-swiped by some of his actions and more than one have felt the discomfort of running afoul of Brown's expectations - previously communicated by him or not - but discretion precludes me from mentioning them here. 

Of course, my exeprience with Bishop Stika so far has been just this one time.  But . . .

(1)  He came to a school to say Mass for the children.

(2)  In his sermon - which he gave - Bishop Stika interacted with the kids, and was pleasant and light-hearted.

(3)  He didn't run off afterwards, but stayed to bless the new Stations of the Cross.  He didn't seem hurried.  He continued talking to parents, staff and students all the while.

(4)  He was having a great time joking with some kinergarten students.  "Let's see if I have this right - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 . . ."  One little boy took it seriously - "NO!  You forgot 6!!"  "Oh, okay - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 . . ."  "BISHOP!  Now you forgot 7!!!"  "Wow, maybe I need to come back and study with you guys!"  The rest of the kindesr were giggling away.

(5)  When I introduced myself, he took the time to focus one me and engage in conversation, and not simply look past me (see posting below).

(6)  I was taking a group shot and one young nun stood off to the side.  I asked her if she wanted to be in the picture, and she said no, as she was "just a guest."  Bishop Stika heard her and said, "She's no guest!  Hey, that young lady just took her final vows and became a real nun,   C'mon, sister, come get in the picture with us!"  She smiled and said, "well, if the Bishop says so . . ." and Bishop Stika just laughed merrily.

Things bode well for my spiritual life in the Diocese of Knoxville.