A Good Shepherd --- Bishop Robert Finn Gets It Done -- A teaching bishop for the "Show Me" State

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Tim Drake, writer for the National Catholic Register and other Catholic periodicals, who lives in St Joseph outside of St Cloud, has a nice profile of Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City - St Joseph, MO, who has been doing a bang up job since he has been appointed to that position just over a year ago.

[snip] Bishop Finn became bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City - St. Joseph in May 2005, after spending a year there as coadjutor. During that time he assessed the distinct needs of the diocese. Not long after his appointment in Kansas City, he established two commissions to examine diocesan catechesis and evangelization.

“I asked my vice chancellor to take a zero-based approach,” explained Bishop Finn. “Assume if we didn’t have any programs at all, what would we need? What do people and pastors want?”

One commission surveyed the diocese, sought the assistance of others, such as Claude Sasson, a history professor who had a decade of experience developing catechetical programs, and ended up replacing the Center for Pastoral Life and Ministry — the diocese’s 27-year-old lay ministry program — with the Bishop Helmsing Institute, a faith-formation model aimed at adults. [snip] Read More

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This article continues the Register’s series exploring how some bishops are finding the voice to address the issues that most bishops, priests and deacons have tended to avoid.

Among others, it will feature Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, N.D., Bishop Robert Baker of Charleston, S.C., Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J., Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo. and Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore. The series previously featured Bishop Victor Galeone of St. Augustine, Fla. and Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix.

In asmuch as Archbishop Harry Flynn has requested of Pope Benedict XVI that a Coadjutor Bishop be appointed to ultimately replace him when he retires, we will be sure to cover the profiles of these fine men so that readers may become aware of the characteristics of a good Archbishop for which they should be praying.