A tale of two bishops

By Paul Schratz

In the span of a week, two bishops were front-page, headline news in The B.C. Catholic.

First was Archbishop Raymond Roussin, SM, who returned to full duties after a health break of several months, and an audible sigh of relief could be heard down here at 150 Robson Street, if not across the diocese.

A week later, Bishop Gary Gordon was ordained and installed in the Diocese of Whitehorse. The arrival of the former Chilliwack priest brought to an end the nearly six years that diocese has been without its own bishop.

These two events serve as an important reminder of the role of bishop at a time when the unity of the Church, which is so dependent on our bishops, is being challenged from so many different directions.

The Church is being subjected to twists and turns that, more than ever, should help us appreciate the fact that every one of the People of God has been "entrusted to a bishop to be guided by him with the assistance of his clergy," as a 1992 letter to bishops approved by Pope John Paul II put it.

The letter, Communionis Notio, which obviously dealt with the communion of the Church, described the bishop as a visible source and foundation of the unity of the Church.

The need for communion is something that, despite the differences between Catholics in the Diocese of Whitehorse and those in the Archdiocese of Vancouver, we have in common.

People often think of the Pope as the sole source of unity in the Church. However, as the Vatican II document Lumen Gentium said, the bishops themselves "proclaim Christ’s doctrine infallibly whenever, even though dispersed through the world, but still maintaining the bond of communion among themselves and with the successor of Peter, and authentically teaching matters of faith and morals, they are in agreement on one position as definitively to be held."

In recent weeks, however, two Canadian incidents gave rise to the question of how matters of faith and morals are supposed to be addressed without that source of unity:

In Quebec a group of priests wrote an open letter dissenting from Church teachings on homosexuality.

Around the same time, the Canadian Religious Conference drafted a letter critical of the Church for being inflexible on sexual morals. The topper was its "regret" over the Canadian bishops’ lack of independence from Rome.

There are a number of things you could say about a college of bishops that was "independent from Rome," as the religious conference desires, but it wouldn’t be "one," as in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. There are more than 3,000 dioceses in the world, and a corresponding number of bishops who, were they setting their own agendas, would soon leave the Catholic Church as fragmented as the rest of the Christian world.

Logistically, a diocese can make do without a bishop for a short time. Administrators fill the gaps as best they can, and vicars can be assigned additional duties. They can even deal with some extraordinary situations that arise. In short, business can go on as usual for a time.

Like a family getting along in the absence of a father who is away on military duty, the bills get paid, the family gets fed, and a broken water heater might even get replaced.

There’s simply no substitute, however, for the presence of a bishop, who is positioned to feed his sheep, not simply to build a fence that contains them while he’s away. Eventually his absence is severely felt, and there cannot help but be a sense of something missing, leaving the diocese unable to run at full throttle.

The return of Archbishop Roussin and the arrival of Bishop Gordon in Whitehorse are two enormous blessings for two western dioceses which went through periods of privation ending just weeks before Easter.

These dioceses need our prayers, as do all dioceses and bishops. The authority of the bishops and apostolic succession are critical characteristics and components of our Church – ones that have been safeguarding the faith for more than 2,000 years.