Passing on the faith

Twins fans can speak about the summer as baseball season.

Lakeside cabin aficionados can refer to these months as boating season. For me as a bishop, however, the season is surely characterized by the installation of pastors. Just about every weekend, I am presiding at installations where I have the privilege of celebrating God’s goodness as he works to bring new gifts to our parishes and new opportunities to our priests. I have been especially edified this year by the openness of our priests to accepting new — and usually more challenging — assignments and to our faithful who are so eager to open their hearts and homes to their pastors even when there’s some lingering sadness about bidding farewell to their predecessors.

The rite for the installation, drawn from the Book of Blessings, highlights the collaboration that the Church has rightly expected from its priests and laity since the time of the Second Vatican Council. The new pastor is encouraged to share his ministry with his staff “in a spirit of mutual trust, common prayer and genuine concern.” He is to recognize his parish pastoral council as the “voice” of his people and to “always be attentive to the needs they express.”

The rite calls the pastor to be a “loving father, a gentle shepherd and wise teacher” of his people, guiding them to Christ. It’s in that context that the rite calls upon the pastor to lead his people in professing their faith by reciting the Creed. He’s obligated as well to take an oath, so that the bishop and the faithful can count on him to “preserve communion in the Church” and to hold fast to the deposit of faith in its entirety, to hand it on faithfully and to make it shine forth, shunning any teachings that are contrary to it. Every pastor in this