A Good Shepherd --- Today’s Bishops – Wielding Miter, Staff --- and Pen! Bishop Victor Galeone of St Augustine

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National Catholic Register
November 13-19, 2005

As bishops meet in Washington, D.C., Nov 14-17, 2005, the Register begins a series of articles looking at bishops as teachers. Among other bishops, the series will feature Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo, N.D.; Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo.; Archbishop John Myers of Newark, N.J.; Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Ariz.; Bishop Michael Sheridan of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker, Ore.

Today's Bishops -- Wielding Miter, Staff, . . . and Pen!
Bishop Victor Galeone of St Augustine, Fla.

by Tim Drake, Register Staff Writer

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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Only two years after his installation as bishop of St. Augustine, Fla. in 2001, Bishop Victor Galeone released his first pastoral letter. Titled “Marriage: A Communion of Life and Love,” the letter addressed the sanctity of marriage
and the disorder of contraception. He didn’t expect the international response he received. Bishop Galeone’s first pastoral is one example of a trend among bishops today to press their role as teachers.

"I received well over 60 positive notes and e-mails from the laity and priests," said Bishop Galeone, who added that he got requests to publish it in Poland, Italy, Spain, Canada, Germany and Japan. "I am convinced that artificial contraception is a tumor growing in our society, and that it has been growing for years," he said. "Because of our silence, we bishops and priests are to blame."

He wrote in the pastoral, “Until the taproot of that disorder is cut, I fear that we will continue to reap the fruit of failed marriages and worsening sexual behavior at every level of society.”

When Pope Benedict XVI met with new bishops on Sept. 19, he stressed the bishops’ primary role as teachers. “Among your duties, I would like to underline that of being teachers of the faith,” said Pope Benedict. “As successors of the apostles you are ‘doctors of the faith,’ authentic doctors who, with the same authority of Christ, above all proclaim to the people the faith we must live and believe.”

This article marks the first in a Register series that will explore how some bishops are addressing the issues that most clergy have tended to avoid. Bishops across the United States are finding creative ways to address these very issues.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “episcopal consecration confers … the office of sanctifying…, teaching and ruling” (1558), but the bishop’s first task is “to preach the Gospel of God to all men” (888).

For many bishops, the pastoral letter remains one of the primary tools for teaching the faithful of his diocese. The use of pastoral letters goes back to the earliest generations of the Church and the New Testament epistles. Modern pastoral letters
often present a particular teaching by a bishop to his people and typically address a problem faced by his particular community.

Bishop Galeone has also released a more recent pastoral on stewardship. He also finds other ways to teach the faithful. He writes a letter in every issue of the diocesan bimonthly publication, St. Augustine magazine, which goes out to all parishioners in the diocese.

“I also meet with 65-75 businessmen four times a year, and have another four meetings each year with Catholic business women,” said Bishop Galeone. “I give 20- to 30- minute presentations.”

Jim Oliveros, a lifelong St. Augustine resident, said he has appreciated the bishop’s teaching. “There was a time in my life when
I didn’t know the Church’s teaching on contraception, and received misdirection from the clergy,” said Oliveros, an environmental consultant who is married and the father of four boys. “In our marriage, we saw the wisdom of the Church’s teaching. It’s been refreshing to have the bishop teaching and giving us guidance on issues that aren’t popular.”

Investment adviser Ellen Middleton has worked with the bishop on various diocesan committees. She has seen the bishop’s teaching in action. “The bishop’s breakfasts with businessmen and businesswomen are one of his teaching tools,” said
Middleton. “Last week, he spoke on intelligent design. He tells us what the teaching is and makes it clear what the Church teaches on the issues. He voices it with authority. He takes his teaching job seriously.”

John Paul Style

Papal biographer George Weigel said Pope John Paul II taught bishops how to be bishops. He said bishops today “had the
opportunity to watch a great teaching pontificate at work, so they’ve taken on the model of the bishop as evangelist and witness — as teacher of the enduring truths of Catholic faith.”

It isn’t just the new bishops who use John Paul as their model through the release of strong pastoral letters. The late Arlington, Va., Bishop John Keating released a teaching pastoral letter to his priests and flock on reverence for the Eucharist in December 1988. In February 1992, Cardinal Adam Maida, from the metropolitan Archdiocese of Detroit, released “Both in Life and Death We Are the Lords” addressing the immorality of assisted suicide.

Bishop Olmsted agreed with the defining role that Pope John Paul has played. “I am influenced by the example and exhortation of Pope John Paul II,” he said. “We saw in him someone who was very committed to evangelization. He had a real passion for catechesis and teaching. Most of us have been very influenced by him, especially those who have been bishops.”

Bishop Galeone said that Pope John Paul II “very definitely” played a role in how he exercises his office as bishop. “I had the privilege of meeting with him personally three times:in 1984, my Rome sabbatical; 2002, a workshop for new bishops; and 2004, my ad limina visit,” said Bishop Galeone. “But more important than the personal encounters have been his solid writings, his infectious priestly example and love for the Lord, and even some of his obiter dicta [incidental remarks], for example: ‘Parents, deprive your children of anything except another brother or sister."

For Bishop Galeone, the ultimate model is biblical. “When I put my head on the pillow each night I cannot go to sleep if I’m trying to gloss over something that needs to be addressed,” said Bishop Galeone. “I am simply following the instruction we hear in Ezekiel 33 about fraternal correction.

The Lord told Ezekiel that he was appointed watchman for his people. He says, ‘You shall warn my people for me.’ If I don’t live up to what God expects of me then I will have a harsher judgment.” That doesn’t mean speaking the truth with firmness is easy.

“No one likes to be ridiculed,” said Bishop Galeone. “You can’t worry about your image. You can’t sugarcoat the truth to make it appear not quite true.”

Weigel expects the example of a teaching pontificate to continue under Pope Benedict. Said Weigel, “I think the bishops of the immediate future will get the same type of inspiration, if in a different style, from Pope Benedict XVI.”

Tim Drake is based in St. Joseph, Minnesota.