I was reminded of the time about 2 years ago now when I was preparing to teach a 6th grade religious ed class. One of the definitions I had to cover was that of bishop. Our textbook told us ...
“Bishops are the chief teachers of the Catholic Church.”
... and that's what I taught my kids. I even had one of them read the Great Commission at the end of Matthew's gospel so that they could see exactly from where that teaching authority and responsibility had come.
Throughout that class I successfully fought off the temptation to tell my kids that, while this definition might apply to the rest of the Church, it seems to have been lost on Matthew Clark.
For years now our good bishop has been primarily using his regular column in the diocesan newspaper, not as the wonderful opportunity to instruct the faithful that it is, but as an outlet for his family news and travelogues.
This latest effort continues that sad tradition.
2 comments:
This doesn't surprise me at all. At my daughter's confirmation a few months back Bishop Clark presided and gave the homily. One would think that the Bishop at a confirmation mass would give a homily on the holy spirit, the importance of confirmation, the beginning of life as an adult in the church, some thing like that. No, the bishop gave his homily on his experience at the youth conference he had just come back from. No teaching, no challenging of the heart, no deep words of wisdom. Nothing except a narcissistic reflection on an event that had no bearing on the important event we were attending. How sad...I don't think he knows how to talk about anything deep and has anything to do with the teachings of the Church.
We've got about 4 1/2 years before the bishop turns 75 and has to step down. Maybe, just maybe, we'll get a real shepherd then.
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