US Bishop Change: Shreveport, Louisiana

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This morning Pope Benedict XVI named Fr. Michael Gerard Duca as the new Bishop of Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.

The Diocese had been vacant since the retirement of Bishop William Benedict Friend in December 2006.

Bishop-elect Duca had been serving as the Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas.
 
davidc2 said:
This morning Pope Benedict XVI named Fr. Michael Gerard Duca as the new Bishop of Shreveport, Louisiana, USA.

The Diocese had been vacant since the retirement of Bishop William Benedict Friend in December 2006.

Bishop-elect Duca had been serving as the Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Irving, Texas.
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I’m in the Shreveport diocese and fishing for information about what I might anticipate from our new bishop. Hopefully it will include access to the Tridentine Mass, active recruitment to the priesthood and deaconate, a crackdown on liturgical abuses, the elimination of the “everyone participates” all-inclusive community foot-bath on Holy Thursday, and a re-emphasis on the sacred over the feel-good.

Does anyone know how orthodox (conservative) or ecumenical (liberal) Holy Trinity Seminary is? What is it’s class size and graduate rate? (Conservative seminaries tend to attract more students) Is it faithful to the magesterium, or does it interpret the Vatican’s “guidelines” loosely?

The only statistic I’ve been able to locate is that Dallas has an absolutely dismal priest-to-parishoner ratio with no help in the forseeable future.
 
Here is a little more information about Bishop-elect Duca as quoted on the website from the Dallas Diocese website:
cathdal.org/default.asp?contentid=137&newsid=17
Pope Appoints Duca to Lead Diocese of Shreveport

Dallas Seminary Rector Named New Bishop
(Dallas) A Dallas native will be the new bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana. The Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, announced this morning that His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, has appointed Reverend Monsignor Michael Duca of the Diocese of Dallas to serve as only the second bishop of Shreveport.

Bishop-elect Duca’s appointment comes just one month away from his 30th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood in Dallas on April 29, 1978. He has served as the Rector of Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas since 1996. He has also served on numerous boards and commissions in the Diocese of Dallas including: the College of Consultors, Presbyteral Council, Personnel Board, the Commission for Orders and on the Diocesan Tribunal, presently as a Judge and as Associate Judicial Vicar. He is currently the Director of the Office for the On-going Formation of Priests. He is also a Fourth Degree Knight of Columbus and a Knight of the Holy Sepulcher…
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Also, we have a new bishop, Bishop Kevin Farrell. So it may take a while before vocations turn around here in the Dallas area. If you are interested in looking for information about him or the seminary, it should be listed by backtracking the link given for the article which will lead you to the main page for the diocese.
 
Hello, Nan, from another parishioner in the diocese of Shreveport. He seems to be a good pick. But early details are sketchy. I’ve yet to talk with my sources. University of Dallas, of course, offers courses through the Greco Institute here in town (I live down the street from the Catholic Center). Everyone I’ve talked to says they are good and orthodox. But I guess it’s all in who you talk to.:rolleyes:

I agree that there needs to be a bit of reigning in. But I don’t think we have it too, too bad, though. We certainly don’t seem to have some of the more egregious abuses I’ve heard of in other diocese. But I could vent a bit about certain folks…😛
 
Brian_C said:
Hello, Nan, from another parishioner in the diocese of Shreveport. He seems to be a good pick. But early details are sketchy. I’ve yet to talk with my sources. University of Dallas, of course, offers courses through the Greco Institute here in town (I live down the street from the Catholic Center). Everyone I’ve talked to says they are good and orthodox. But I guess it’s all in who you talk to.:rolleyes:

I agree that there needs to be a bit of reigning in. But I don’t think we have it too, too bad, though. We certainly don’t seem to have some of the more egregious abuses I’ve heard of in other diocese. But I could vent a bit about certain folks…😛
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Bishop Friend was always very pleased to point out that the priestly sexual abuse scandal didn’t scar our diocese. And he didn’t waste any time requiring that all lay teachers be formally trained in recognizing and reporting suspected abuse.

In trying to get info about Msgr Duca I went crawling through the Holy Trinity Seminary website. The seminary has about 24 students (seems low), but isn’t on anyone’s list of “pink” or “lavendar” seminaries. Beyond that I’m clueless.

My complaint is that I’m just weary of the “Spirit of Vatican II” priests that we have. A “soft on crime” attitude doesn’t help the police, and a “soft on sin” attitiude doesn’t help the church. So I have hopes that the new bishop will be conservative. Pope Benedict opined that to get healthy and grow vigorously in the future the church might have to get smaller for a while. He was specifically talking about shucking the church of some of the divisive lip-service Catholics, the Catholic-in-name-onlies and the Catholic-but-disagree types. My pastor preached last week on this, specifically disagreeing because he believes God is big enough for everyone (to paraphrase him).

At least my parish is blessed with a priest who although “Progressive” (his word) is also an excellent manager who gets the whole parish involved in catechesis and ministries. I’d like to think that we more-conservative parishoners active in catechetical programs make up for his kindler/gentler sermons.
 
Nan, do you read Everyday Faith? I’s the religion blog from Dianne Haag of the Shreveport Times. She has a bit on Bishop Duca. Says the Diocese folks say he’s from the center of the spectrum: edayfaith.blogspot.com/

Either way, I don’t think he’ll do anything to Fr. Peter’s EF mass. Fr. Peter is an up and coming future bishop himself.
 
Brian_C said:
Nan, do you read Everyday Faith? I’s the religion blog from Dianne Haag of the Shreveport Times. She has a bit on Bishop Duca. Says the Diocese folks say he’s from the center of the spectrum: edayfaith.blogspot.com/
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Thanks for the link. Additional human-interest stuff found (family background, picture of him wearing t-shirt while raking a garden). All generic friendly stuff tho; nothing about whether he is of an “ecumenical/progressive” or an “orthodox/conservative” mindset.

Here’s a question: Who elevates a bishop? Will Shreveport have someone coming in from the Vatican, or perhaps an official from the USCCB? I read that Dallas’ Bishop Farrell was installed by the apostolic nuncio, the Rev. Pietro Sambi.
Either way, I don’t think he’ll do anything to Fr. Peter’s EF mass. Fr. Peter is an up and coming future bishop himself.
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“EF Mass”? Do you mean Tridentine? Because I’ve been to one of Fr. Peter’s Latin Masses and it was definitely Novus Ordo. I don’t know of anyone doing the Tridentine Mass in the Shreveport Diocese. I’ve heard rumors that a church down in Alexandria is using the Tridentine Mass, but it’s not Bishop Herzog’s “fifth sunday” Latin Mass.

I’ve been trying to get to another of Fr. Peter’s - my DH wants to go - but the Cathedral’s on-line Sunday bulletin doesn’t announce them very far in advance. Guess I’m just going to have to call the Cathedral’s office. My “progressive” pastor (who seems to thinks Latin is archaic and incomprehensible) doesn’t pass the word along sigh. We love our pastor anyway. He’s a great manager and knows how to get everyone involved.
 
In the greater scheme of things, Nan, Abp. Hughes of New Orleans is the Metropolitan over Louisiana. There will certainly be other Bps and Abps in attendance but Abp. Huges is the premier prelate for Louisiana.
 
Bishop-elect Duca will be ordained a bishop on 19 May. I have not yet heard who the consecrators will be. It might be Archbishop Hughes, the Nuncio (Archbishop Sambi), or even the Bishop of Dallas. I’ll post updated info whenever I get it.
 
Nan_S said:
Thanks for the link. Additional human-interest stuff found (family background, picture of him wearing t-shirt while raking a garden). All generic friendly stuff tho; nothing about whether he is of an “ecumenical/progressive” or an “orthodox/conservative” mindset.

Here’s a question: Who elevates a bishop? Will Shreveport have someone coming in from the Vatican, or perhaps an official from the USCCB? I read that Dallas’ Bishop Farrell was installed by the apostolic nuncio, the Rev. Pietro Sambi.

“EF Mass”? Do you mean Tridentine? Because I’ve been to one of Fr. Peter’s Latin Masses and it was definitely Novus Ordo. I don’t know of anyone doing the Tridentine Mass in the Shreveport Diocese. I’ve heard rumors that a church down in Alexandria is using the Tridentine Mass, but it’s not Bishop Herzog’s “fifth sunday” Latin Mass.

I’ve been trying to get to another of Fr. Peter’s - my DH wants to go - but the Cathedral’s on-line Sunday bulletin doesn’t announce them very far in advance. Guess I’m just going to have to call the Cathedral’s office. My “progressive” pastor (who seems to thinks Latin is archaic and incomprehensible) doesn’t pass the word along sigh. We love our pastor anyway. He’s a great manager and knows how to get everyone involved.
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There’s another thread going on in the Trad forum talking about a Tridintine mass at St John’s. I knew Fr. Peter was doing Latin Novus Ordo but thought maybe he’d fianlly stepped up to the old mass. Maybe not, though.
 
BTW, I also see in Fr. Peter’s news that the ordination of Bishop Duca will be invite only!😦
 
Hi, I’m a catechist in Shreveport. My word from friends who know the bishop-elect semi-personally is that he’s very orthodox. Not sure about his liturgical stances. Hope this helps. Send me a private message if you would like to discuss this further.
 
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