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Fourth Sunday of the Year
1 February 2009
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
God be praised for the gift of a new bishop! Monsignor Robert E. Guglielmone (Goo Yell Mo Knee) will be ordained to the episcopate at our Cathedral Church of St. John the Baptist on 25 March 2009, and at that same Mass will be installed as the thirteenth Bishop of Charleston. Bishop-elect Guglielmone is 63 years old and comes to us after thirty years of priestly ministry in the Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York where he has served as a teacher, a parish priest, a chancery official, and the cathedral rector. Because of the limited seating available in our cathedral, it seems certain that attendance at the bishop-elect’s ordination will be restricted to invited guests, but nothing is known for certain at this time. As we wait for the joyful day of his ordination, please continue to pray for our new shepherd, that the LORD will strengthen him for the work that lies ahead.
As we anticipate the arrival of the thirteenth Bishop of Charleston, it is well for us to remember that he inherits the work of his twelve predecessors. The Diocese of Charleston was erected in 1820 by Pope Pius VII, and at that time our territory included all of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Our first bishop came from Cork, Ireland, and his name was John England. When he arrived in Charleston to take over his new diocese, Bishop England found only two parish churches and six priests to serve the small number of Catholics scattered over three states. Bishop England (for whom the diocesan high school in Charleston is named) worked tirelessly to establish the Catholic Church on a firm foundation, and for twenty-two years he wrote, preached, taught, and traveled in the service of the Gospel. In 1822, Bishop England started the first Catholic newspaper in our nation, the United States Catholic Miscellany, and in 1826 he was invited to address a joint session of the United States Congress. In 1830 he founded the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy (who taught at our parish school for over 70 years), and 1832 he opened a college and seminary in Charleston to train priests for his vast diocese. Bishop England died in 1842 at the age of 56, by which time he was one of the most respected men in the South. John England established the pattern of bold and clear teaching of our faith together with peaceful and productive relationships with our non-Catholic neighbors, and by his personal example, the first Bishop of Charleston demonstrated beyond all doubt that it is possible to be both an orthodox Catholic and a patriotic American.
Eleven other bishops stand between John England and Robert Guglielmone, and each one brought his own gifts to the task of serving as chief shepherd of the Diocese of Charleston. But while the men in the office change, the duties of the office remain the same: to teach, to sanctify, and to govern the Church in South Carolina as a Vicar of Christ and Successor of the Apostles.
Father Newman