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By Tony Staley
Compass Editor

	Related article ... • Bishop calls for examining how church serves

In his first six months in Green Bay, Bp. David Zubik has been made to feel welcome, he told journalists June 11 at the Green Bay Press-Gazette.

He recalled how, at noon Sept. 30, the papal ambassador to the United States phoned to congratulate him on his new assignment.

Just after the apostolic nuncio said "Green" there was static on the phone and Bp. Zubik, who was serving as auxiliary bishop in his home diocese of Pittsburgh, thought the nuncio said "Greensburg." The mistake was natural: the Greensburg Diocese, which borders Pittsburgh, also was awaiting the appointment of a new bishop and Bp. Zubik was rumored to be a shoo-in for the job.

After the nuncio assured him that he said "Green Bay," Bp. Zubik said, "if it hadn't have been for the Packers, I wouldn't even know where Green Bay was."

After accepting the appointment, he looked at the Green Bay Diocese section of the Official Catholic Directory.

"By the time I was done, there wasn't a single person that I knew. And I thought, 'My Lord, what are you asking me to do?' Obviously, I was really anxious. But from the minute I stepped out of that car when I arrived Dec. 9," he said, "people were just very friendly and very welcoming. I have felt that consistently every place I have gone, whether it's been out in our parishes or schools or in a mall or in the supermarket.

"I find the sense of the people in this area is incredibly family-oriented and I think the spirit here is unlike anything I have ever seen anywhere - and I thought Pittsburgh was a friendly place - but the whole area here has been wonderful. That's been the most surprising aspect of my first six months here."

He said people have been helpful and patient, though he is frustrated with himself because he doesn't know all the priests or where every community is.

As for football, Bp. Zubik said he would back the Packers over the Steelers if the two teams play each other.

Bp. Zubik also addressed several issues.

Denial of Communion to politicians is "a very delicate issue," he said "and I think each bishop has to take a look at his response in the context of what Eucharist is for us. The Eucharist is the most important reality in the Catholic Church. It's our belief that Communion is the Body and Blood of Jesus himself."

Before receiving Communion, each Catholic is obligated to examine their life. If they find serious sin, "they need to make amends by the celebration of the sacrament of Penance and then come to the celebration of Eucharist."

But "the decision the person makes about receiving Communion is one that people make within the privacy of their own relationship between themselves and God," he said.

As for withholding Communion from Catholic politicians who support abortion, Bp. Zubik said "the Eucharist to my mind can never be politicized. At the same time, the Eucharist has to always remain something that is the most sacred reality in our church. The Eucharist ought not to be something that is punitive.

"If a decision is going to be made to refuse the Eucharist to somebody, that would have to be the absolute last step in a process."

He said bishops first have a responsibility as teachers to make sure that people really understand where the church stands on the issue of life, be it abortion or euthanasia.

Thus, the first step would be to meet with a politician and talk about where they are on an issue and educate them on the church's stand. Next, the bishop might say that the church has some problems with a candidate on a particular issue or perhaps a Catholic politician who favors legal abortion would not be allowed to speak at Catholic institutions.

"But I think what has to happen, in each of those cases, is it has to be very clear why an action is being taken, what the action is so people have a very clear sense of what is going on," he said.

While reading the report on the diocese for his ad limina trip to Rome (May 23-28), Bp. Zubik said he saw something he had already experienced: "love for the church and the deep desire for people to be involved with the church" through lay ministries, parish life, Catholic Charities, peace and justice and ecumenism.

Bp. Zubik said he thinks the level of trust is increasing following the sexual abuse scandal. He attributed that, in part, to having more than 8,000 parish and diocesan employees and volunteers undergo background checks and take mandatory Virtus training on preventing sexual abuse.

"We're going a long way to rebuild the trust. It's going to take time. It's not going to happen overnight, but we're going to continue to work at it. That's my commitment, that we're going to continue to work at it and do everything we can to address the issue."

That includes making society aware that most cases of sexual abuse of minors occur in the home, he said.

Bp. Zubik said he is having discussions with theologians at Catholic colleges about the "mandatum" or mandate for teaching in these schools.

"I'm obviously very supportive of that because that's my responsibility as the bishop, to make sure that at any institution, regardless of whether the diocese owns it or not, that in fact the teachings and traditions of the Catholic Church are being respected, observed and passed on," he said.

He said he plans to study Spanish this summer and that he wants to learn to use a computer.