Diocesan administrator, pastors urging prayers for new bishop who is to come
Seeds are being sown now for a bouquet of blessings for the fifth bishop of the Jefferson City diocese — whoever he may be.
Monsignor Robert A. Kurwicki, who is serving as diocesan administrator until a successor to Archbishop Shawn McKnight is appointed and installed, is among the priests of this diocese encouraging fervent prayers for a new bishop.
Archbishop McKnight left this diocese to become archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas this past May.
No one knows when a new bishop will be appointed. Msgr. Kurwicki surmised that with the number of vacancies that need to be filled in this country, the process could take up to a year.
At every opportunity, he encourages people to pray for Pope Leo XIV and his advisors, who will be responsible for selecting a new bishop, and for that future bishop.
“Because somewhere, there’s probably a parish priest who has no idea that his life is about to change forever!” said Msgr. Kurwicki, pastor of St. Peter Parish in Jefferson City, who served as vicar general under Archbishop McKnight.
Father William Peckman, pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Macon, St. Mary Parish in Shelbina and the Mission of Sacred Heart in Bevier, and dean of the North Deanery, is encouraging parishioners to contribute to a spiritual bouquet for the new bishop.
“A spiritual bouquet is a gift of various prayers, devotions, abstinence and fasting that resemble a bouquet of flowers made up of various flowers and plants,” Fr. Peckman wrote to his parishioners.
“Over the next several months, as we await the next bishop for our diocese, we offer these prayers and other actions as we intercede that we may receive a good, holy and courageous bishop who will lead our diocese and help us engage in the Gospel commission of the salvation of souls,” the priest stated.
The prayers and sacrifices are anonymous.
“God will know what you have done,” Fr. Peckman wrote.
He distributed a list of possible prayer offerings and activities and asked everyone to submit their prayer offerings once a month in the Offertory collection at Sunday Mass.
Parish staff will keep a tally of the prayers and sacrifices and will present them to the new bishop when he arrives, “as a sign of our prayer for him as he takes on his new duty.”
Suggestions include praying Rosaries, Divine Mercy Chaplets, litanies and novenas, offering Mass intentions and Holy Hours, hours in Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Bible study, days of fasting and abstinence, and Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy.
Fr. Peckman was quick to caution against praying for God to send “the kind of bishop we want.”
“Rather, we need to be praying for God to send us the bishop we need, and to fill him with all the gifts he’ll need to carry out his mission successfully,” the priest stated.
Succession
Each first Wednesday evening of the month, the Cathedral of St. Joseph Parish in Jefferson City holds XLT Adoration, including prayers, songs, devotions, a short message from the pastor, and silent Adoration during Exposition of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
In June, Father Stephen Jones led participants in praying a special Litany of intercession for the incoming bishop and of gratitude for the previous bishop.
“Gather to adore and to pray for the man who will one day be named as our next bishop — obviously an important thing to do,” Fr. Jones proclaimed from the pulpit.
But why?
“Because, as much as Catholics sometimes grumble about bishops, they are important — indeed essential — to the unity of the Church,” Fr. Jones stated.
He pointed to the wise teaching of St. Ignatius of Antioch a late-first-century bishop and martyr, “who is a link for us between the Apostles themselves and the growing early Church.”
“Ignatius,” said Fr. Jones, “along with St. Polycarp, had both learned the faith in their youth from the Apostle St. John, himself, and so they provide great insight into the life and teaching of the post-apostolic Church.”
St. Ignatius was the third bishop of Antioch, at a time when the early Church was being actively persecuted.
“On the way to his martyrdom in Rome,” Fr. Jones noted, “he wrote a series of letters to the Catholic communities in the towns through which he passed.”
The priest offered a few quotes from those letters:
“See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the Presbytery [Priesthood] as you would the Apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop.
“Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church.” (Letter to the Smyrneans, Chapter 8)
“Those indeed, who belong to God and to Jesus Christ — they are with the bishop. And those who repent and come to the unity of the Church — they too shall be of God. ...
“Do not err my brethren: if anyone follow a schismatic, he will not inherit the Kingdom of God. ... Take care, then, to use one Eucharist, so that whatever you do, you do according to God: for there is one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup in the union of His Blood; one altar as there is one bishop with the presbytery and my fellow servants, the deacons (Letter to the Philadelphians, Chapter 3).
Fr. Jones pointed to early Church customs that helped cement the understanding of the fundamental role of each bishop serving as a source of unity: “unity within the diocese and unity with the larger Church.”
Fr. Jones distributed copies of the litany and led the praying of it aloud before the Blessed Sacrament.
At the end, Fr. Jones prayed: “Heavenly Father, to whom all the saints in heaven and earth adore and bend the knee: Pour out your Holy Spirit on Pope Leo as he works to appoint a new bishop for our diocese. Grant him continual wisdom and discernment; a spirit of revelation and the knowledge of your will, the confidence in your guidance in the decision to be made; this we ask in the Name of and for the glory of the One who is, was, and ever shall be, your Son our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
“Flock and field”
Msgr. Kurwicki invites the people of the diocese to join him in frequently praying the following prayer:
“O Lord, Shepherd of Shepherds, we turn to you seeking your grace, that we in the Diocese of Jefferson City may be given a bishop who is a shepherd after your heart and will guide us, your flock, to be a faithful flock and fruitful field in union with you now and for eternity. Amen.”
