John O. Barres is still making discoveries as head of the Diocese of Allentown, where his ancestors lived.
By Dan Kelly
Reading Eagle
June 27, 2010
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=230825
After nearly a year at the helm of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown, Bishop John O. Barres found he needs to brush up on his Spanish.
During an interview last week in the chancellery in Allentown, Barres said one of his goals in the coming year is to be able to work closely and converse easily with Latino Catholics.
So Barres, 49, is leaving Monday for a monthlong trip to Lima, Peru, where he hopes to immerse himself in Spanish language and culture.
"I've spent time with the Catholic Relief Services in San Marcos, Guatemala, and a couple of weeks in Guadalajara, Mexico, and got a base for my Spanish, but I have to build on that," Barres said. "Pope John Paul II talks about the Ecclesia of America. I've found our Hispanic brothers and sisters have great insights into catachesis - the teaching and passing on of faith - that we don't have in North America.
"My conversation is really rusty. I think I can tune up the base and take it to the next level."
The diocese comprises Berks, Lehigh, Northampton, Schuylkill and Carbon counties, all of which have growing Latino populations.
Barres also talked about his personal connection to the diocese, the need to consolidate some parishes, a shortage of priests, priesthood and marriage, and the church's child-abuse scandals.
Ethnicity plays a major role in the diocese, Barres observed.
The Polish, German, Irish, Italian and now Latino parishes form the foundation of the church in America and they must be preserved, he said.
Consolidating parishes
Since the 2008 order to consolidate some parishes in Schuylkill County, rumors of further consolidations have spread through the diocese, especially in Berks.
Barres said there will be no further consolidations until the 14 consolidations being appealed by Schuylkill parishes are resolved.
Those appeals have lingered for two years and diocesan spokesman Matt Kerr said he had no prediction on when they might be resolved. Most of the parishes have strong ethnic identities.
Barres said it is very difficult to close traditionally ethnic churches. He used St. Casimir's Church in Shenandoah, Schuylkill County, as an example of a church with strong ethnic ties.
That church is where the Rev. Walter Cisek, the Polish-American Jesuit priest who spent 23 years in a Russian prison during the Cold War, was baptized as a baby. Cisek, who is buried at the Jesuit Center near Wernersville, is being considered for sainthood.
"We stand on the shoulders of these beautiful ancestors who sacrificed so much," Barres said.
More priests needed
Barres said the number of priests, parishioners and finances all figure in the decision to consolidate parishes.
"There has not been a liturgy or a function where I haven't spoken for the need for all of us - not just priests, but lay people as well, to be agents of the call to the priesthood," Barres said.
"I have real expectations and high hopes that some great things are percolating in terms of vocations," he said.
And recruiting new priests isn't rocket science, Barres said.
"We had a holy hour at the cathedral; had some pizza and then had some cell phone numbers of mostly college students," he said. "Every priest would call the students that they knew and at the end (of the conversation) they would put me on with them and I talked to them.
"Even if the young man wasn't remotely interested in the priesthood, it was a good investment because they had contact with a great priest and they knew their bishop was praying for them.
"What we find is that personal contact is absolutely key."
Clergy abuse
Barres doesn't mince words when talking about abuse of the young by clergy.
"Clergy sexual abuse is a crime," Barres said. "It is a terrible sin. It has absolutely devastating consequences on the victims and their families, and the church is taking responsibility for the history of this."
The church is trying to ensure that abuses are not repeated, he added.
"These wounds are so deep and so painful that you never fully step into the pain, but we have to be as vibrant instruments of healing as we possibly can," Barres said. "All of us are called to be beacons of hope for the victims and their families who deal with these wounds the rest of their lives. It is absolutely crucial to me."
Marriage and priesthood
Barres said marriage could be a distraction from true holiness for priests. He said he doesn't buy into the argument that more men would become priests if they could also get married and have families.
"There is something special about the celibate commitment," Barres said. "The radical focus on the consecration of mission that is Eucharistic, that is biblical, that is missionary: That celibate commitment is so beautiful."
Priests must be able to focus on their work, he said.
"Priests must be intellectually engaged," Barres said. "That's important in terms of the issues of the day, but also in terms of being able to articulate the Catholic experience and Catholic teaching in the prism of contemporary experience."
A personal connection
"My whole family history runs through Bethlehem," the bishop said. "My father grew up across from Liberty High School. My great-grandfather was a night watchman in Bethlehem for 38 years. One of his sons, Grover Ritter, was a tailor in Reading."
| Allentown Bishop John O. Barres at a Vespers service in St. Margaret's Roman Catholic Church at Third and Spring Streets in September. Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi |
Barres said he visited recently with Grover Ritter's daughter-in-law, Bonnie Ritter, Wyomissing, who is 86 and a retired Wyomissing High School art teacher.
"I was getting some of the beautiful stories and getting a sense of the Reading connection in my family," Barres said. "When I go into South Bethlehem or Reading, realizing some of my ancestors had their lives and their families there, that's very powerful to me.
"Every summer from 1967, when I was 7, until I was about 20 years old, we'd come back. My great-grandparents are buried on the banks of the Lehigh River on a hill looking over the steel mills.
"I remember going to that cemetery when I was 7 and seeing that family plot for the first time and it was my first experience of mortality. That place has kind of a special place in my memory.
"The deeper we get into history, the more we are able to chart paths into the future."
Contact Dan Kelly: 610-371-5040
Contact: dkelly@readingeagle.com
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