Fellow bishops express their admiration for Bishop Gaydos
There are some things about being a bishop that only a fellow bishop understands.
A few of Bishop John R. Gaydos’s friends who carry crosiers commented on his passing from this life and what his time as a bishop and priest meant to the local Church.
“God always provides”
Almost every Wednesday evening while Archbishop Shawn McKnight was serving as bishop of Jefferson City (+2018-25), he would go to the Cathedral of St. Joseph Rectory, where Bishop Gaydos was living in retirement, for a visit.
There, they would share dinner and conversation.
“That was a special time for me,” said Archbishop McKnight. “Often, it was just the two of us, and we were able to talk about things that only the bishop of Jefferson City would know.”
Archbishop McKnight found it helpful to have Bishop Gaydos’s advice and counsel and to get to know him more personally.
“Having followed him as bishop, I am especially mindful of his decades of devoted service and the foundation he laid for the mission that continues today,” said Archbishop McKnight.
“One thing that he prized the most was that the diocese would remain in communion with the Universal Church,” the archbishop observed.
Bishop Gaydos was loyal to the Church and recognized God at work in and through it, despite the shortcomings of its people.
“I presume he came upon that through the culture of working in the Chancery in St. Louis before he became a bishop,” said the archbishop, “and, of course, his time as a seminarian at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.”
Bishop Gaydos expressed profound admiration and loyalty to St. Louis Archbishop John L. May (+1980-92), who taught him many things about how to lead in the Church.
Archbishop McKnight is convinced that the bishop emeritus’s passing from this life in this time of transition helps reveal God’s abiding providence.
“God always provides,” said Archbishop McKnight. “It’s quite poignant that a diocese lost its bishop with my appointment to Kansas City, and now they’re losing their bishop emeritus. But there’s already a promise of a new shepherd in Bishop O’Donnell, who will arrive next month.”
“Lift a glass”
Bishop-emeritus John J. Leibrecht of Springfield-Cape Girardeau considers it a blessing that Bishop Gaydos is no longer suffering.
“As much as I miss him, the news is a blessing,” he said.
Like Bishop Gaydos, Bishop Leibrecht was a priest of the St. Louis archdiocese before being raised to the episcopacy.
Bishop Leibrecht served as archdiocesan superintendent of Catholic schools during Bishop Gaydos’s time as priest secretary to Cardinal John J. Carberry, who was archbishop from 1967-80.
“My contact with the archbishop was through Father Gaydos,” Bishop Leibrecht recalled. “He would call and say, ‘the archbishop wants to see you,’ or I would call John and say, ‘I want to see the archbishop.’”
Accordingly, Bishop Leibrecht got to know Bishop Gaydos very well “through those many contacts.”
“We were able to help one another out and were able to become friends,” he said. “It was really a blessing.”
They renewed their acquaintance in 1997 as bishops of neighboring dioceses and as fellow board members of the Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC).
“We had many, many meetings together,” Bishop Leibrecht recalled. “And of course, you’re there on business as Missouri’s bishops, but we would always break to share a meal.”
They made a point not to carry on the business at the table: “We tried to catch up on other things.”
As bishop of Jefferson City, Bishop Gaydos was a key contact between the bishops and the state government.
“We all knew the MCC staff,” Bishop Leibrecht recalled, “but he had the responsibility of working with them between meetings and sometimes making decisions in accord with the direction of the conference.”
Bishop Gaydos was steadfast in getting Missouri’s bishops together for dinner during the spring and fall meetings of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“He was sort of our social director,” said Bishop Leibrecht. “During every meeting, he would arrange one night out for dinner. He never missed. He always contacted us and made the reservation.”
There again, they weren’t catching up on business; they were enjoying each other’s company.
Bishop Leibrecht remembers Bishop Gaydos as a loyal friend who went out of his way to show appreciation.
He loved a great celebration.
“We know how to celebrate as Roman Catholics when there’s time,” Bishop Leibrecht noted. “We celebrate the Lord and we celebrate events with the Lord’s people. That’s what this was all about.”
One of Bishop Gaydos’s greatest contributions to any gathering was an endless arsenal of stories.
“He always added that to the celebration,” said Bishop Leibrecht. “He’d lift a glass of wine to you and tell another story.”
Bishop Gaydos had a great memory, and many of his memories were humorous, including about himself.
“He didn’t take himself too seriously,” Bishop Leibrecht added. “He knew the Lord was in charge. You do all you can, but it’s the Lord behind the whole effort.”
Bishop Leibrecht hopes the people of this diocese never forget how blessed they were to have been led by Bishop Gaydos.
“He was a really capable bishop and priest,” said Bishop Leibrecht. “And he carried those skills into his work.”
Even when his health wasn’t cooperating, he found a way to do what needed to be done.
“He had a way of dealing with his limitations that didn’t significantly interfere with his responsibilities,” said Bishop Leibrecht. “That’s really impressive.”
“Not bad!”
Bishop Edward M. Rice described Bishop Gaydos as a man, a priest and a bishop who “stood in the midst of his people as one who served,” all under the mantle of Mary, Mother of the Church.
Bishop Rice called to mind a time when he and Bishop Gaydos were at the Vatican with the rest of the bishops from Region IX in the United States for their “ad limina” (“to the threshold”) visit with the Pope and their advisors.
It was Bishop Rice’s first ad limina since becoming the bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, which encompasses all of Southern Missouri.
In fact, it was his first time in Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI was running a little late, which gave the bishops a few minutes to catch their breath.
“And so we bishops were mulling around, waiting to be received, and I was looking out the window over St. Peter’s Square, taking it all in, thinking to myself, ‘How in the world did I get here?’” Bishop Rice recalled.
Just then, Bishop Gaydos came up to him and said, “Not bad for two kids from South St. Louis.”
“Of course, I had to laugh because it was true!” Bishop Rice recalled.
Their first meeting had come in 1974, when then-Father Gaydos was newly assigned to St. Cecilia Parish in St. Louis.
“I was 13 at the time,” said Bishop Rice. “Bishop Gaydos told the story of me sitting on the stone wall of the St. Cecilia playground, and as he walked by, I said, ‘Are you the new priest?’”
They were only a couple of miles away from where Bishop Gaydos had grown up — within the boundaries of St. Agnes Parish.
“How truly remarkable it was that two kids from South St. Louis would find ourselves looking out at St. Peter’s Square as we waited to be received by Pope Benedict XVI!” Bishop Rice marveled.
From very early in Bishop Gaydos’s Priesthood, he was heavily engaged in the work of the St. Louis archdiocese, serving in various roles in the Chancery and on numerous archdiocesan boards and commissions.
“He was in the midst of the people ‘as one who serves,’” Bishop Rice observed.
Likewise, upon being elevated to the Episcopacy, Bishop Gaydos took up an active role not just in governing his own diocese but also in ensuring the welfare of the whole Church.
“He served the people of God very well,” said Bishop Rice. “He gave them ‘a shepherd’s care,’ and the Diocese of Jefferson City is all the better for it.”
Prayer circle
Bishop Leibrecht believes Bishop Gaydos would want the people who loved him to keep praying for the Church.
“He was so devoted to the Church and the Church’s mission to the faithful, to Catholics, and to the world, with all of the challenges it’s facing right now,” Bishop Leibrecht stated.
“I think he would ask us, as we thank God for his ministry, I think he would say, ‘Please continue to pray for the Church I tried to serve,’” he added.
Reciprocally, Bishop Leibrecht is convinced that Bishop Gaydos will continue to intercede for the Church, especially for the Church in central and northeastern Missouri.
“He includes all the rest of us, no doubt,” said Bishop Leibrecht. “But here is where the Lord called him to serve, so his intercession will continue for the Diocese of Jefferson City, for sure.”
Bishop Rice, borrowing a phrase from Pope St. John XXIII, noted that Bishop Gaydos carried with him a lot of the dust from all the roads he had traveled.
He picked up that dust while “attending to the things that pertain to God, preaching the word in season and out of season, being a faithful steward, a guardian of the mysteries of Christ,” said Bishop Rice.
“Having been a faithful steward, a guardian the mysteries of Christ, may he rest in peace and be admitted to company of God and his angels and saints!” he said.
