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  Monsignor John O. Barres Will Succeed Bishop Edward Cullen in the Catholic Diocese of Allentown

By Daniel Patrick Sheehan and Brian Callaway
Morning Call
May 28, 2009

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-online1.6913187may28,0,6455810.story

The next bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Allentown lost no time in asking for help, invoking the guidance and protection of the Virgin Mary as he prepares to take control in a time of imposing pressures on the church in America and around the world.

Monsignor John O. Barres, 48, introduced at a news conference Wednesday at the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena in Allentown, will become the fourth bishop of the diocese when he is installed July 30.

He will succeed the now retired Bishop Edward P. Cullen, 76, whose 11-year tenure was marked by the closing of dozens of parishes in the face of dwindling vocations, shifting Catholic populations and shrinking congregations.

Barres, chancellor of the Diocese of Wilmington, Del., since 2000, is an Ivy League-educated theologian with a master's in business administration -- credentials that may serve him well as he guides the diocese in the current economic morass and seeks to bring more faithful into the Catholic fold.

As Wilmington's chancellor he was the bishop's second-in-command, responsible for interpreting church law and otherwise assisting with governance. The diocese consists of 58 parishes in Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and serves 233,000 Catholics.

Allentown has 104 parishes serving 277,000 Catholics in five counties. In assuming command, "I have no blueprint," Barres said, paraphrasing a remark Pope Benedict XVI made after his election to the papacy. "I am opening myself to the Holy Spirit."

Barres called his appointment a homecoming of sorts. His father, Oliver Barres, a Protestant minister who converted to Catholicism, grew up on Linden Street across from Liberty High School. Many members of the Barres family are buried in Bethlehem's Nisky Hill Cemetery. "I have great memories of coming to Bethlehem just about every summer" to visit his aunt, uncle and cousins, Barres said.

"You will soon have a Catholic bishop with many Moravian relatives," he added. "With that family heritage, you can understand I will be intent on continuing to foster deep inter-religious and ecumenical bonds with all our fellow Christians and members of other religions in the diocese."

Barres called on Catholics to recommit themselves to helping the poor and downtrodden, the unborn and elderly and the victims of clergy sexual abuse. "Our duty of healing and reconciling is summed up in Bishop Cullen's episcopal motto, 'Christ, Church and Compassion,"' he said. "That motto will be complemented by my own: 'Holiness and Mission."'

Barres will surely confront lingering tensions over last summer's closings, which eliminated about a third of the diocese's parishes and hit the ethnic parishes of Schuylkill County especially hard. More closings and consolidations in the region remain on hold pending review in Rome.

Pressed by reporters from Schuylkill County to talk about the fate of those parishes, Barres said he was "looking forward to studying the situation better. … I would need to listen and study the situation more fully."

Cullen, who plans to spend retirement lecturing, writing and assisting with confirmations and other sacraments, said no major decisions on any matter will be made in the diocese until Barres is installed. Until then, "Everything is frozen." Day-to-day administration will be carried out by an interim director who will be appointed at a meeting today.

Appointing a bishop is a lengthy process, often taking eight months or more. Candidates for open seats are recommended to the papal nuncio -- the Vatican's ambassador -- by bishops around the country, and the nuncio recommends three candidates to the Congregation of Bishops in Rome. The congregation considers the candidates against a report on the needs of the diocese prepared by the departing bishop, then makes a recommendation to the pope.

Author George Weigel, a friend of Barres and Catholic intellectual who wrote a biography of John Paul II, said Barres was probably selected "because he is an extremely able man who has done a superb job as the No. 2 guy in Wilmington." He called Barres an intellectual and a fine preacher with great evangelical fervor.

While Wednesday's news conference served to introduce Barres, it also gave Cullen a chance to reflect on his own tenure. He called the church closings "heartbreaking … the worst decision I ever had to make." And he said he wished the process had been settled so his successor wouldn't have to address it.

Asked what he thought his legacy will be, Cullen told of writing a letter to the faithful about the meaning of the cross. A hospital chaplain told him the letter was a profound reflection on suffering and invaluable to clergy who spend their days comforting the sick and dying. Cullen said the chaplain told him his letter "will be your greatest legacy to this diocese."

The Rev. William Seifert, pastor of St. Stephen of Hungary in Allentown, said the diocese's priests and laypeople are eager to learn more about the new bishop. The previous bishops of Allentown -- Cullen, Thomas Welsh and Joseph McShea -- have all come from th e Philadelphia Archdiocese, either directly or indirectly, and were familiar to local priests.

Barres, meanwhile, is still something of a mystery here. Indeed, Cullen said he had never met or spoken to Barres before learning of his appointment and hosting him for breakfast Wednesday morning.

"The Diocese of Wilmington and the Diocese of Allentown, unless you're going t o Bethany Beach, do not have a lot of connections," Seifert said. Even so, Barres' resume makes it clear "he's bright, well-read, and we got the best Wilmington had to offer."

The Rev. Thomas Protack, pastor of St. John Neumann in Ocean Pines, Md., first met Barres more than 20 years ago, when Barres was studying at Catholic University of America and Protack was considering attending the school. Both eventually ended up working in the Diocese of Wilmington.

Protack said his old friend is well-equipped to reach out to Catholics wounded by the church closings. The Wilmington diocese has not endured closings -- the diocese has grown by 64,000 in the past decade -- though it has shuttered several urban Catholic schools in recent years because of migration to the suburbs.

"He would be a very good listener, he would be very compassionate, he would definitely bring healing to some of those parishes," Protack said. "But John is also a churchman through and through, so I know he would certainly honor his predecessor and Rome's decisions."

The Rev. Bernard F. O'Connor, president of DeSales University i n Center Valley, said the appointment of the new bishop could energize a diocese that has seemed bogged down of late by the closings and other matters.

"In some sense, we've been focused on the closing of churches and that kind of stuff. But I think this young man will probably be focused much more on the future," he said. "We have a great affection for our Bishop Cullen and for our dear Bishop Welsh, but it's always exciting when someone new comes along, someone who is obviously vital and energetic."

Barres will face plenty of challenges.

"The question is, how exactly do we reshape, reform the diocese for the 21st century and stretching on beyond it," Seifert said. "One of the real questions beyond that is the recruitment of clergy ... of ministers in the parish, of meeting the needs of the five counties, which are very divergent at this stage."

Contact: daniel.sheehan@mcall.com

 
 

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