Last Thursday, February 20th, early in the morning as I was in the chapel, a text came across that we might have a new bishop. A few minutes later a Google Plus text popped up that we indeed had a new bishop. His name was Carl Kemme. As I left the chapel, I thought about making an announcement to the 6:30 am Mass goers. However, I held back because I didn't know how his name was pronounced. Was the second “e” pronounced or not pronounced. Maybe it was a short “e” and not a long “e.” I certainly did not want to mispronounce the name of my new boss.
After Mass, I headed down into Bishops Hall for our Thursday, Junior High Scripture Group. The religion teacher was waaayyyy excited! She enthusiastically approached me, “Did you hear about the Bishop.” I responded with a less than enthusiastic, yes, which kind of surprised me. As I listened to people celebrating the announcement of Bishop-elect Kemme, I did not really understand why I was not yet “feeling the joy.” My reserve started to shake off as I read his bio and found out that he was a farm boy; moreover, later in the day someone shared with me that he raised hogs! Oh my, this is good news! You can't go wrong with a hog farmer. :-)
Over the next several days I thought some about my hesitation to celebrate the appointment of a new bishop. For priests, the appointment of a bishop is the arrival of a new boss. A lot of our happiness is connected with our relationship with our boss, the bishop. Naturally, a number of questions arise in a priest’s mind on the appointment of a new bishop. Will he be a bishop that likes to move priests around?; Will he approve of the things that we are doing at our parish?; Will we relate to each other well?; Is he traditional or progressive?; and, of course, will he like K-State or KU?
It wasn't until Saturday, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, that I realized the foolishness of my thinking. The Feast of the Chair of St. Peter is the celebration of Christ establishing the authority of the supreme authority of the Church, namely, the pope. The Gospel of the day is Mt. 16:18 where Christ tells Peter that he is the rock on which the Church will be built. Peter was given a special authority through the reception of the “keys.” It would be God’s plan to provide a shepherd’s care to each generation through the authority of the pope founded on the Chair of St. Peter.
It all became clear to me when Bishop-elect Kemme stated that he was humbled by Pope Francis’ choice in selecting him as the next Bishop of Wichita. This was how the good shepherd Jesus Christ was going to care for me and the people of our parish over the years to come. All of a sudden those questions about his style and background didn’t really matter anymore. Christ is at work shepherding us and, by the Chair of St. Peter through Pope Francis, we have been graced with Bishop-elect Carl Kemme. Of course, it doesn't hurt any that he was a hog farmer.
Ad majorem Dei gloriam, Fr. John F. Jirak
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