Bishop Emeritus Gaydos as transition progresses - It’s ‘just sweet’

Bishop Emeritus John R. Gaydos has been lifting his successor up in prayer.

“I’ve been praying for him every day. In fact, I was praying for him before I knew who he was,” said Bishop Emeritus Gaydos, who after 20 years will turn leadership of the Jefferson City diocese over to Bishop-elect W. Shawn McKnight on Feb. 6.

The retiring bishop’s prayers increased in intensity during discussions with Archbishop Christophe Pierre, Pope Francis’ apostolic nuncio to the United States, about the possibility of a new bishop being appointed for this diocese.

“And I’m just amazed and very pleased with the wonderful way that it’s all unfolded,” Bishop Emeritus Gaydos said.

He recently finished moving from the bishop’s residence in Jefferson City to an apartment in the recently completed Cathedral of St. Joseph Rectory, which previously served as the Carmelite Monastery.

“I’ve been able to get rid of a lot of unnecessary baggage,” he said. “And I’m getting the rest of it all adjusted for this new phase of my life, and it’s going very well.”

Inside his new office, a compact space on the second floor of the Alphonse J. Schwartze Memorial Catholic Center, Bishop Emeritus Gaydos shared some thoughts about the events that led up to this moment in the diocese’s history.

He will turn 75 this August and would be required at that time under Canon Law to submit his resignation to the Pope, who would decide whether to accept it or ask him to continue serving.

Last spring, Bishop Emeritus Gaydos’ doctors recommended that he have surgery to replace his heart’s aortic valve, which had been showing signs of wear and had begun to leak.

“If you had told me a year ago today that I was going to have open-heart surgery in five months, I would have said you were crazy,” he said. “But the fact of the matter is, you do what your physicians tell you. That’s the best way to maximize your ability to carry on.”

Surgeons from the Cardiovascular Division of Washington University School of Medicine performed the surgery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis in May.

The bishop is quite familiar with Barnes-Jewish because he worked there as an electrical apprentice one summer while the hospital’s Queeny Tower was being built.

“I had to deliver everything from coffee and donuts to pieces of electrical equipment all over the building,” he said. “I still know how to get from one part to the other, from the basement on up.”

He was initially frightened when doctors told him about the surgery he needed and what it would entail.

He said to the surgeon, “You might do four of these a day, but I hope to have it done only once in my life!”

The bishop read up and did what he could do to prepare. He then turned it all over to God and rested on the prayers of many people.

“When I woke up after the surgery and noticed that I wasn’t hooked up to a ventilator, and I saw the doctor and nurse standing over me, smiling, I thought, ‘Okay. This looks pretty good,’” he recalled.

“And I remember thinking, ‘God must still have some work for me to do.’ And I was very grateful for that.”

The recovery hasn’t always been easy, “but every day is a little better, so you know you’re going in the right direction,” he said.

He’s confident that with grace from heaven and the help of his “wonderful physicians,” he’ll be able to continue doing God’s work.

“Not like when I was young,” he was quick to add. “I certainly don’t have the energy I had when I was younger.”

The Spirit is working

Bishop Emeritus Gaydos contacted the papal nuncio and through him asked Pope Francis to consider appointing a successor.

“I got to the point that I could just tell that I didn’t have the energy that’s needed for this job, for this ministry,” he recalled. “And I thought the diocese deserves better, needs better, than I was able to give.”

The Holy Father accepted Bishop Emeritus Gaydos’ early resignation and appointed Bishop-elect McKnight, a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, to succeed him.

Bishop Emeritus Gaydos will be a co-consecrator at Bishop-elect McKnight’s ordination and installation Mass — just as his predecessor, the late Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe, had done for him in 1997 and the late Bishop Joseph M. Marling C.PP.S. had done for Bishop McAuliffe in 1969.

“To see how the Holy Spirit has worked in bringing us this wonderful new fellow — I’m very pleased,” Bishop Emeritus Gaydos said.

In addition to boundless energy, impressive intelligence and deep spirituality, the retiring bishop pointed to Bishop-elect McKnight’s “wonderful understanding of the centrality of stewardship in the life of people and in the life of our Church.”

“That’s going to be very exciting for us,” he said.

The new bishop also has great appreciation for scholarship, “which is going to help us in our continuing growth in Catholic education,” Bishop Emeritus Gaydos added.

“A really great blessing”

The Bishop Emeritus said stepping down from administration is not bittersweet for him.

“Just sweet,” he said.

“The fact is that it’s a great thing, and I’m really looking forward to being here and praying and working with everyone for as many days as God gives me to do so,” he said.

He said all he’s wanted throughout his time here as bishop “is just to be faithful to my calling from God.”

“And I can see, that’s what Bishop-elect McKnight wants, too,” he said. “If fact, it’s not any different for anyone else: we all need to be faithful to our baptismal call.”

He pointed to the previous Sunday’s Gospel reading (John 1:35-42) in which two men ask Jesus, “Teacher, where are You staying?”

“And the Lord answers, ‘Come and see!’” said Bishop Emeritus Gaydos. “And they stayed with Him! That’s what each of us is invited — is called — to do: to abide with Jesus.

“I never dreamed that I would be asked to carry out my own baptismal call as the bishop of a particular Church,” he said. “But it’s been a really great blessing for me, and I know that’s true because the time has flown by so quickly.”

Accept the challenge

During their first discussion after Bishop-elect McKnight was chosen for this diocese, Bishop Emeritus Gaydos told him what he’s told many others: “If you have to be a bishop these days, this is the place to do it.”

“And I know that so many people are praying right now for him and for me,” the retiring bishop said.

He offered a few thoughts for anyone who wants to help the new bishop minister as effectively as possible.

“We don’t know the future,” he said. “All we do know is the challenge of living the faith we’ve been given. So each of us can best help our new bishop by living our faith to the fullest extent that we’re capable, as people who are embracing the New Evangelization.

“Beyond that, the most we can do is welcome him and invite him around and let him get to know us and let the Holy Spirit take care of the rest,” he said.