Local Catholics need a local bishop

U-T San Diego
September 20, 2014

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/sep/20/local-catholics-need-a-local-bishop/

At some point in coming weeks, the Holy See, the Roman Catholic papal bureaucracy at the Vatican, is expected to decide who will become the sixth bishop in the history of the diocese of San Diego. The fifth bishop, Cirilo Flores, died earlier this month after a battle with prostate cancer.

Flores was a Corona native who served more than 20 years in the diocese of Orange before coming to San Diego in 2012 and taking over as bishop in 2013. He made an enduring impression before being incapacitated by health problems. We mourn his loss and believe he lived up to his goal of being “a good shepherd sharing the good news of God’s mercy and love” while bishop.

His successor must be, of course, another “good shepherd,” one who provides clear, compassionate moral leadership in a challenging time of inequality, political division and cultural stress.

However, we also believe that local Catholics would be best served by the selection of a local priest as bishop. The diocese has 14 missions and 99 parishes in San Diego and Imperial counties serving nearly 1 million Catholics. The region has 47 Catholic elementary schools, six Catholic high schools and two Catholic universities.

We have among us priests who have demonstrated leadership, commitment, wisdom and humility as they have worked within our community — men well-known within our parishes. They have the capacity to keep the divine and the moral before us in our daily lives — spreading the word of Christ and the spirit of hope, compassion and Christianity in a world where zealots and terrorists are not only on the loose but are recruiting Americans with cynical, evil propaganda.

These men also know the region — from our new Latino immigrants to our longtime residents, from struggling neighborhoods to tidy suburbs.

We respectfully encourage Pope Francis and his advisers to consider this perspective. The diocese of San Diego is one of our community’s greatest institutions. Selecting someone from the community to lead it would only add to its strength and value.