HARTFORD (CT)
National Catholic Reporter
Michael Sean Winters | Oct. 29, 2013 Distinctly Catholic
“Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you,” we read in 1 Peter 3: 15. We are called to be “a people of hope.” Some days, watching and listening to Pope Francis, being hopeful comes easy, even naturally.
Today is not one of those days. In naming Bishop Leonard Blair to become the next Archbishop of Hartford, the Holy See has sent what can only be described as a counter-sign. This was a missed opportunity to send a signal to all the bishops in the United States that the Holy Father is calling for a different style of pastoral leadership in the Church. In June, Pope Francis spoke to the nuncios from around the world assembled in Rome. He sketched the type of pastoral leadership he expected in the appointment of bishops. The Pope said he wanted pastors who would serve their people, not serve as overlords. They were, he famously said, to be men who “have the smell of the sheep.”
The good news is that Archbishop-designate Blair has the smell of the sheep. The bad news is that one suspects he thinks the sheep stink.
Archbishop-designate Blair served his tour of duty at the Vatican as a top aide to Cardinal Szoka. It is time for the nuncios of the world, and for the Congregation for Bishops especially, to ask themselves this question: What exactly about serving at a desk in the Vatican inclines one to think the person would make a good pastor? Certainly, a tour of duty creates a network of friends in high places, it generates a familiarity with the “court” atmosphere, and a suppleness at navigating the Byzantine, sometimes Kabuki-like, methods that have ruled in those frescoed halls. One would be hard pressed to make the case that it inoculates one to clericalism, which Pope Francis has pronounced a scourge on the life of the Church.
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