Dear Friends,
Wow. What a week for Catholics in Omaha and the world! Catholics in Chicago can celebrate their
impact with these two new Catholic pastors – Archbishop McGovern for the Archdiocese of Omaha and
Pope Leo for the entire world. If you would have suggested either option to me six months ago, I would
have politely laughed and said that would certainly be the work of the Holy Spirit. How else could it
happen? But it did happen!
As you may have read on the Archdiocesan website, Archbishop McGovern said about himself, “I would
describe myself as a pastor, a shepherd.” Though he has held administrative posts, too, he said, “I love
being pastor most of all.”
The people of his parishes in Chicago and his diocese of Belleville were filled with praise for our new
Archbishop. They said he was smart and level-headed, someone who tackled problems by listening and
proceeding carefully, one step at a time. He moved people forward in faith, creating a sense of the
Church being where you wanted to be. With joy, then, let us welcome him to Omaha.
The day after his installation in Omaha, the Holy Spirit gave the full church a new pastor. Here is what
Archbishop McGovern said about the selection, “So I have a great sense of hope,” because of Pope Leo’s
“breadth of experience” as a missionary in Peru and in leading his worldwide religious community.
As the Augustinian prior general, the future pope would have traveled to countries around the globe,
taking in a variety of cultures, the archbishop noted. The Holy Father speaks multiple languages and is
able to read others.
“But I think that sense of his background, his being a missionary bishop in Chiclayo, Peru, the fact that
he addressed the crowd today both in Italian and in Spanish – speaking directly to the people of
Chiclayo, where he was their shepherd – it all bodes well for the kind of heart that he has, the heart of a
shepherd,” Archbishop McGovern said. “He really wants, like those Bernini colonnades in front of St.
Peter’s (designed by Bernini, to resemble outstretched arms), to embrace the whole world.”
The people who have known Pope Leo describe him as being very intelligent, a listener, slow to make
judgments, and concerned about others. Reading his first homily as Pope, given at Mass Friday morning
with the Cardinals, gives us a taste of that intelligence. Here is one brief part: “Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God: the one Savior, who alone reveals the face of the Father. In him, God, in order to
make himself close and accessible to men and women, revealed himself to us in the trusting eyes of a
child, in the lively mind of a young person and in the mature features of a man, finally appearing to his
disciples after the resurrection with his glorious body. He thus showed us a model of human holiness
that we can all imitate, together with the promise of an eternal destiny that transcends all our limits and
abilities.”
We celebrate then that God is alive and working in his Church! We look forward to working with these
new shepherds as they guide us and lead us.
Oh, and it is Mother’s Day, too!!! We cannot forget all those amazing women out there who give us a
living example of what it means to love each and every day. Blessings on this Mother’s Day!
Peace,
Fr. Damian