News

Bishop calls Catholics to emulate faith heroes

By Patricia Kasten
Compass Associate Editor

	CONGRATULATORY APPLAUSE: Abp. Gabriel Montalvo, apostolic nuncio, Dcn. Paul Umentum of St. Mary of the Angels, Green Bay, and Abp. Timothy Dolan of Milwaukee join the assembly in applauding newly installed Bp. David Zubik, who sits in the cathedra, Dec. 12, at the Mass in St. Agnes Church. (Rick Evans photo)
	Bishop's schedule Bp. David Zubik is using his first week in office to visit parishes to meet the people of his new diocese. Here is the remainder of his schedule: • Thursday, Dec. 18, 6:30 p.m. Mass at St. Bernard Church, Green Bay; • Sunday, Dec. 21, 1:30 p.m. Mass at St. Bernard Church, Appleton. • Additionally, Bp. Zubik will celebrate Christmas Eve Mass at 9 p.m. at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral. The Mass will be broadcast live on WLUK-TV (Fox 11).

GREEN BAY -- Trumpet blasts and the roll of timpani were not the only calls to attention heard at the Dec. 12 installation Mass of Bp. David Zubik. What the 1,400 people gathered at St. Agnes Church to welcome the 11th bishop of the Green Bay Diocese also heard was a call to honor, as well as, emulate their heroes of faith.

"It is my firm belief that a hero is a person who lives their faith with courage, and out of love," said Bp. Zubik, as he set aside lifelong ties to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, where he has served his entire 28 years of priesthood to embrace his new post as spiritual leader of nearly 380,000 Catholics in northeast Wisconsin.

"A hero," he added, "is not meant to be a person who is put on a pedestal; a hero is a person whose life is meant to be emulated."

As the congregation - which included his parents, hundreds of friends from Pittsburgh, most of the priests and deacons of the Green Bay Diocese, two of the diocese's former bishops (Bp. Robert Banks and Card. Adam Maida of Detroit), more than 30 visiting bishops, archbishops and cardinals, local dignitaries, diocesan staff and an electronic audience via WJOK radio and WLUK FOX 11 TV - listened, Bp. Zubik issued the challenge to live as heroes of faith.

Bravely fulfilling vocation

Using the examples of people who lived humbly, Bp. Zubik described how each bravely fulfilled the vocation of followers of Christ:

Loving God;

Loving God's church and;

Loving God's people.

After thanking his predecessor, Bp. Robert Banks for leading the local church since 1990, the new bishop cited the faith-filled examples of his own grandmother - Susan Raskosky; the Jesuit missionary, Fr. Claude Allouez; Abp. Karol Wojtyla (now Pope John Paul II); St. Juan Diego, the visionary of Guadalupe; and the girl from Nazareth, Mary.

None of these "unsung heroes" started out with power or privilege, the bishop noted. Instead, they faced uncertainty, filled with fear. Whether it was a young mother leaving her homeland of Czechoslovakia in 1922 to follow her husband to a new life in the United States; a poor Aztec Indian during European colonization in Mexico; or a 17th century missionary sent to the harsh winters of Wisconsin to bring the Gospel to native peoples, each believed the same words which the angel spoke to a young, single woman called to become a mother through divine grace: "Nothing is impossible with God." It is the motto Bp. Zubik has chosen to guide his ministry.

To him, this means never taking "for granted our relationship with God, that we celebrate the sacred mysteries of the Church with great care, and that we carry, most important of all, the grace, the love and the word of God in our hearts ... in our workplaces, in our neighborhood and in our living rooms."

Heroes must face challenges

A hero is not a hero without a challenge, and without facing that challenge with every bit of courage he or she possesses. In that, Christians are to be like athletes, striving to give the best. It was this challenge to give the very best to which Pope John Paul referred in his apostolic letter, read by his apostolic nuncio to the United States, Abp. Gabriel Montalvo, appointing Bp. David Zubik to Green Bay. Referring to Paul's first letter to the Corinthians (9:24), the pope called Bp. Zubik to be like an athlete striving for the champion's crown: "run, so as to win" and told him "to be sure to work and to rouse the cheering crowds" of the faithful and fill them "with vigor" by his example of living the faith as the diocese's "lead runner."

Related articles ... • 'Glad that he's in our midst'     Diocese welcomes Bp. Zubik at vespers service • Promises to learn Spanish     Guadalupe celebration enjoyed by Bp. Zubik     and Hispanic community • Their friend will be OK in his new home     Friends of Bp. Zubik impressed by welcome     • Sidebar: Enjoyed return visit • Manitowoc area Catholics welcome Bp. Zubik     Schools, senior living community among visits Past coverage:    December 12, 2003 issue:      • photos from installation and vespers service      • Special coverage    November 21, 2003 issue:      • Pittsburgh planning farewell Mass for Bishop Zubik Sunday    November 14, 2003 issue:      • Visits scheduled for bishop    November 7, 2003 issue:      • Bp. Zubik to be installed Dec. 12 at St. Agnes    Other coverage:      • Links to Oct. 10 and Oct. 17 Compass coverage of new Bishop

With that challenge before him, Bp. Zubik issued several challenges to his new racing teammates, with each challenge bolstered by the example of his own personal heroes:

To nurture our own personal call from God: "Like that mother of Jesus," the bishop said, "you and I are called to have our hearts and ears attuned to the will of God and to respond to that will with courage; the courage that stands up to all those moments in life that would like to make life cheap."

To support vocations: Bp Zubik said that, like Pope John Paul, those in religious life should celebrate their vocations because it "gives us the freedom to be able to be there for God's people, to share a heart and mind and a way of life with people who need to see God's life rich in their own."

Support for married couples

To support married couples: Like his grandmother, who loved her husband enough to follow him to a strange land, Bp. Zubik sees God calling all of us, through the example of married couples, "to be a society who grows in appreciation of the importance of family life ... and in preserving the sacred tradition of what marriage is all about."

To support life: Again like Mary, Bp. Zubik called his congregation "to proclaim the absolute sanctity of human life from the first moment of conception to the point of natural death ... so that we can never turn a deaf ear to somebody who is on the fringes of society; that we can never write off people because they happen to disagree with us."

To support the weakest ones among us: One of the emotional moments of the Mass was when Bp. Zubik greeted Melissa Kuick, who represented persons with disabilities. In his homily, the bishop called us to remember "that we've seen, within our own lives, how important it is to reach out to those people who have disabilities and to look into the face of Christ in the people in whom we would rather not see his love."

Support the Good News

To support the Good News: Like the missionary, Fr. Allouez, Bp Zubik reminded his listeners that "we as a church know how important it is to spread the Good News, to give to the teachings of Christ and his church with as much energy as we can, so that people know there is a dimension of life that goes beyond the present moment."

To be Temples of God: In order to remain faithful to our love of God, church and people, the bishop said that it is crucial"that we never take for granted our relationship with God" and that we always "carry the grace, the love and the word of God in our hearts" wherever we go.

Carrying the Gospel wherever we go was exemplified at the installation Mass by general intercessions read in five languages of northeastern Wisconsin - English, Polish, Hmong, Menominee and Spanish. Also, the entire celebration was interpreted for the deaf community.

Noting that he has already accepted some of the challenges called forth by his faith - leaving the place where he grew up, the family and friends he has known for a lifetime, the local church that nurtured his faith - Bp. Zubik said that he is able to continue to accept challenges because of his trust in God.

"I have freely chosen to leave southwestern Pennsylvania and come to northeastern Wisconsin," he said, "because I firmly believe that this is where God wants me to be."

United with, and grateful to those whom he knows are willing to "roll up your sleeves as we seek to go about the business of what God wants us to be about," the bishop blessed everyone listening and thanked them for their prayers.

"If we can, in fact, put our energies together to make God present in the world, as he wants to do so through us," the bishop concluded, "then I think we can make a big difference in northeastern Wisconsin because, remember the promise that Mary received from the angel? 'Nothing is impossible with God.'"