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midori
Guest
Ah, I’m sorry to hear that. I was fortunate enough to attend the ceremony where he was installed… it was very moving. Good luck to him! I’m curious where his replacement will come from.
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jwinch2
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jwinch2
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ComputerGeek25
Guest
Rochester is only slightly smaller than Buffalo.
Rochester is the 3rd biggest city in NY and the 2nd biggest economy.
Rochester metro is about 1,000,000 people. The Dioscese spans 12 counties or so and has 350,000 Catholics.
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ThyKingdomCome
Guest
IIRC, the Syracuse diocese is comparible in Catholic population to that of Lincoln, NE. Yet Lincoln is much more high profile. I’m not sure why Syracuse would need to get swallowed up in another diocese, keeping in mind that there are other cities that are already part of the Syracuse diocese (Binghamton, Cortland, Utica, etc…). What these areas need is MORE oversight, not less.
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Oneofthewomen
Guest
I am from the Diocese of Rochester, and all I can say is that it was a very interesting weekend here. :hypno:
There is one camp that is doing the “happy dance”, and there is one camp that is just completly devastated, unsure of what’s to come, and very, very worried.
And then there are the rest of us, those who are wondering jsut what this means for us as a Diocese. Will will conintue to be a diocese? Will Rome restructure and merge the 3 wester NY dioceses (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse) into 2? Did our Bishop ask for this? If so, why? Is he being “punished”? (It’s no secret, that Rochester is known for it’s “problem children”)
And my biggest question, hoping someone here might know, has something like this happened in recent memory in the Church? To be honest, I have never heard of a Bishop’s resignation being accepted before a new Bishop is named, unless said retitring Bishop wanted it , or was too ill to continue in his duties. By all accounts, everyone in the DOR was very surprised by this action, including our Bishop.
I pray for all the Bishops! Not a job I would want at all!
There is one camp that is doing the “happy dance”, and there is one camp that is just completly devastated, unsure of what’s to come, and very, very worried.
And then there are the rest of us, those who are wondering jsut what this means for us as a Diocese. Will will conintue to be a diocese? Will Rome restructure and merge the 3 wester NY dioceses (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse) into 2? Did our Bishop ask for this? If so, why? Is he being “punished”? (It’s no secret, that Rochester is known for it’s “problem children”)
And my biggest question, hoping someone here might know, has something like this happened in recent memory in the Church? To be honest, I have never heard of a Bishop’s resignation being accepted before a new Bishop is named, unless said retitring Bishop wanted it , or was too ill to continue in his duties. By all accounts, everyone in the DOR was very surprised by this action, including our Bishop.
I pray for all the Bishops! Not a job I would want at all!
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ComputerGeek25
Guest
There is rampant speculation as to why Bishop Clark was booted quickly,I am from the Diocese of Rochester, and all I can say is that it was a very interesting weekend here. :hypno:
There is one camp that is doing the “happy dance”, and there is one camp that is just completly devastated, unsure of what’s to come, and very, very worried.
And then there are the rest of us, those who are wondering jsut what this means for us as a Diocese. Will will conintue to be a diocese? Will Rome restructure and merge the 3 wester NY dioceses (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse) into 2? Did our Bishop ask for this? If so, why? Is he being “punished”? (It’s no secret, that Rochester is known for it’s “problem children”)
And my biggest question, hoping someone here might know, has something like this happened in recent memory in the Church? To be honest, I have never heard of a Bishop’s resignation being accepted before a new Bishop is named, unless said retitring Bishop wanted it , or was too ill to continue in his duties. By all accounts, everyone in the DOR was very surprised by this action, including our Bishop.
I pray for all the Bishops! Not a job I would want at all!
The people that are very, very worried should be. I think several people, in places of power have openly questioned Church teaching. Or at the very least, portrayed the church in a negative light.
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jwinch2
Guest
If the reports are accurate in that Cardinal Burke is currently playing a major role in the process of suggesting candidates for the Episcopate and in the assignment of Bishops for our Holy Father, than yes, I would suggest that certain elements in certain diocese are probably very concerned. Pope Benedict already had a reputation for choosing faithful and traditional men but recently this seems to have become even more pronounced recently. The diocese of Rochester has been mentioned here, but I suggest one could probably add the diocese of Orange, CA to some extent. We also saw a similar situation recently in the San Francisco diocese. This article discusses that situation and the potential influence that Cardinal Burke may be having: whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2012/07/b16s-bombshell-by-bay-marriage-chief.html
While I am certainly not happy that someone else is feeling consternation, I see the recent history of appointments and assignments to be a very good thing overall. Combine that with recent changes in the USCCB such as the one in the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development and I feel that things are moving in a good direction.
While I am certainly not happy that someone else is feeling consternation, I see the recent history of appointments and assignments to be a very good thing overall. Combine that with recent changes in the USCCB such as the one in the Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development and I feel that things are moving in a good direction.
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Kenny_Kamel
Guest
Bishop Vann is originally from Springfield, Illinois (where I live) and was a Priest in the Diocese of Springfield prior to becoming a Bishop. He is loved and revered around here, I’ve spoken to so many people who have incredibly high opinions of him. Many of my friends in clergy have had a lot to say about him and his recent appointment to the Diocese of Orange. I think he is going to do a bang-up job out in SoCal 
Please pray for Bishop Vann!
Please pray for Bishop Vann!
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Oh_Charlotte
Guest
Thanks for explaining that for everyone, ComputerGeek25! Yes, we very much need our own Bishop here in Rochester, particularly to clean up the mess this last one made. What mess? This one:
Category…** 1979**… 2012
Active diocesan priests…341. …90
Total priests…584 215
Priest ordinations…4 …0
Religious sisters…1,047 …443
Parishes… …161…105
Seminaries…2 …0
Catholic high schools… …9 …5
Catholic elementary schools…78…25
Total Catholic school students …76,724 …20,603
Infant baptisms …6,742 …2,646
Marriages …3,919 …1,009
Yes. Just look at those numbers. That’s the sad mess.
But he can be (and has been!) commended for having been a very pleasant, very calm, very personable person and I understand the best-ever famous brother and uncle and cousin anyone could ever have! And he was consistently pleasant and personable all three decades while he wrecked our Diocese as shown in the above very real stats. While there was no money to keep Catholic Schools going, there was plenty to turn our sacred spaces into pleasant multi-purpose “gathering spaces” with the Tabernacles out of sight, out of mind, no matter how much the parishoners protested, and build new churches designed to look like barns and other such structures - just not churches!
But he was a most positive personality to the end! We were told here again and again in the local paper and in constant accolades in the Diosesan paper what a great bishop he was, what a wonderful job he did, and what a great era of “hope!” he has led us in! Yup, thats what they are telling us to think here!
Those two sides to the man, the one responsible for those stats and the nice pleasant calm guy are probably the reason for the comment below:
“The happy camp” would be those affected or appalled by the above statistics. The very worried would be his happy followers and admireers, and there are those.
I don’t think that is on the table. Just here in this thread, I think because a lot of out-of-staters associate New York State with New York City and think that Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse are just dots close to each other on a map…
This is true. It is unusual and it is an encouragement to those who have been directly affected by the above statistics as well as the many highly dissident happenings under this Bishops reign who have appealed for help to the Vatican over and over these years. For these, surprise of the unprecedented fast acceptance of his required retirement, effectively ending his reign immediately, along with the appointment of an interim administrator (which eliminates his handpicked council running things after he goes) are all a sign that the Vatican has heard the cries of the people and they do have an eye on this little dot in New York State, way over there in Rome.
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jwinch2
Guest
Brutal data set above. I dearly hope that things start improving sooner rather than later. It sounds very much like what happened not too long ago in Australia.
hancaquam.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-get-one-priestly-vocation-in-18.html
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Beautiful
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As mentioned earlier, there are those who are worried and those happy by Bishop Clarks swift retirement. A better way to categorize would be to say there is also a group/camp that is a combination of bitter & happy.
Oh Charlotte, you must realize that all those years of letter writing to the Vatican can’t and don’t culminate to this point that seems like perhaps…justice…to you. My perception is that Bishop Clark acted and has for the most part acted in accordance and perhaps even plain obedience to hierarchy within the Church. And that Rochester, along with a few other select diocese have been simply ‘experiments’ in an effort to see how the Church can/will keep up with changings times.
There were very simply too many unanswered questions and issues that left many like me and perhaps you feeling dumbfounded.
Besides…is not such an act as a ‘swift resignation acceptance’ just a little bit too late….to call justice…medicinal? Schadenfreude eats from the inside out.
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mdgspencer
Guest
I wouldn’t like to speak against a particular bishop on this forum, but I am aware that there have been very serious problems in the Diocese of Rochester. The next bishop will face a difficult situation. I hope one is picked who is an able leader when it come to serious pastoral problems. I presume though because of sort of appointments being made in recent years that the Vatican will be careful to select a new bishop who is orthodox.
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mdgspencer
Guest
I have been around for more that 70 years and I have never heard of two or more dioceses being merged into a single diocese. I don’t think you have to be concerned about that happening.
I don’t think I would feel any assurance the present bishop of Rochester is being punished. Every bishop must submit his resignation when he reaches the official retirement age. Sometime the Vatican accepts it then, sometimes the Vatican doesn’t accept it and asks him to stay on longer. I have not heard speculation about any ulterior reason for why it happens either way.
There have been many cases where the bishop resigned and some higher priest in the diocese runs it until the new bishop is installed. In those cases a bishop resigns before a new bishop is chosen and then put in his place.
Perhaps you are hearing wild rumors, rumers that circulating in the Diocese of Rochester.
I don’t think I would feel any assurance the present bishop of Rochester is being punished. Every bishop must submit his resignation when he reaches the official retirement age. Sometime the Vatican accepts it then, sometimes the Vatican doesn’t accept it and asks him to stay on longer. I have not heard speculation about any ulterior reason for why it happens either way.
There have been many cases where the bishop resigned and some higher priest in the diocese runs it until the new bishop is installed. In those cases a bishop resigns before a new bishop is chosen and then put in his place.
Perhaps you are hearing wild rumors, rumers that circulating in the Diocese of Rochester.
I am from the Diocese of Rochester, and all I can say is that it was a very interesting weekend here. :hypno:
There is one camp that is doing the “happy dance”, and there is one camp that is just completly devastated, unsure of what’s to come, and very, very worried.
And then there are the rest of us, those who are wondering jsut what this means for us as a Diocese. Will will conintue to be a diocese? Will Rome restructure and merge the 3 wester NY dioceses (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse) into 2? Did our Bishop ask for this? If so, why? Is he being “punished”? (It’s no secret, that Rochester is known for it’s “problem children”)
And my biggest question, hoping someone here might know, has something like this happened in recent memory in the Church? To be honest, I have never heard of a Bishop’s resignation being accepted before a new Bishop is named, unless said retitring Bishop wanted it , or was too ill to continue in his duties. By all accounts, everyone in the DOR was very surprised by this action, including our Bishop.
I pray for all the Bishops! Not a job I would want at all!
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Dale_M
Guest
It has happened in the past.
For example, in Ireland the Diocese of Galway, Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora was formed in 1883 by merging the Diocese of Galway with the Diocese of Kilmacduagh and Kilfenora (itself created by an earlier merger.)
galwaydiocese.ie/diocese/history
However, I am not sure how often it occurs in modern times. For example, the Diocese of Mogadiscio (Somalia) has been vacant since 1989, when Bishop Pietro Salvatore Colombo, O.F.M was murdered. For the past 23 years, the Diocese of Mogadiscio has been overseen by an apostolic administrator, currently the Bishop of Djibouti (Giorgio Bertin, O.F.M.)
But as you suggested, the idea of the Diocese of Syracuse being merged seems unlikely. The US has diocese with far smaller Catholic populations. For example, the Diocese of Steubenville has only about 40,000 parishioners.
catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dsteu.html
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Joe_5859
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That’s what I was going to say. If teeny-tiny Steubenville didn’t get suppressed and merged, I doubt they’d do that to Rochester. It doesn’t appear to be something they do frequently. But oh how the rumor mill turns!
I can’t remember the last time they accepted the resignation of a bishop because he reached the retirement age without immediately naming his successor. I’ve only been paying attention for the past few years, though.
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jwinch2
Guest
Well, we had a reception for Bishop Vann tonight in our Deanary which our parish was fortunate enough to host. We started with Vespers and then went to the Parish Hall for copious amounts of dessert (that’s what happens when you plan for 2 1/2 times the number of people who show up), and then we had a reception line to wish the Bishop well.
He’s all yours now Orange, CA. Please take good care of him.
He’s all yours now Orange, CA. Please take good care of him.
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NorthTexan88
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Do you go to ICC? If so that’s where I go! Was that last night? If so I completely missed it
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jwinch2
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Nope, I am the Northwest Deanary. If you are in the metro, yours must be on a different evening.
Peace,
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NorthTexan88
Guest
Your right, our is tonight
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