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Happening ... in the Local Church
Sixth bishop named for Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana
Local Church members welcome new shepherd
 Father
James Bates speaks with Bishop-elect Timothy L. Doherty at a reception
following the May 12 news conference. (Photos by Caroline Mooney) |
 Dominican
Sisters of St. Cecilia from Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, Carmel, visit with
the bishop-elect. |
 Deacon
William and Mary Reid greet Bishop-elect Doherty, who will be installed
July 15. |
By Kevin Cullen
The
Catholic Moment
LAFAYETTE — Bishop-elect Timothy L. Doherty has spent most of his life in his home diocese, the Diocese of Rockford, Ill. But he quickly impressed those who attended a May 12 news conference at which he was introduced to the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana.
TV, radio and newspaper reporters were joined by scores of diocesan employees, clergy, seminarians, women religious and well-wishers at the 45-minute session, held at the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception.
Bishop-elect Doherty, 59, will be ordained and installed as bishop on July 15. Until then, Bishop William L. Higi, bishop since 1984, will continue as apostolic administrator.
Seminarian Pete Logsdon said he was touched by Bishop-elect Doherty’s sometimes-emotional remarks about leaving his two parishes to begin a new phase of his ministry in Indiana.
“When he talked about leaving home, that personalized him for me,” said Logsdon, a member of St. Patrick Church, Kokomo, who is studying for the priesthood at Saint Meinrad School of Theology. “I left California and am now in this diocese, so I can relate to that. I left a career; I left a lot of roots behind, but I feel that those roots just help us grow where we are planted.”
He said he was most impressed by Bishop-elect Doherty’s statement that a bishop should try to give people what they need, not what they want.
“I am looking forward to knowing him,” Logsdon said. “I will be in Lafayette this summer so I will get to meet him and spend some time with him.”
Bishop-elect Doherty has served as ethicist for health care for the Rockford diocese since 1995. He earned a doctorate in Christian ethics from Loyola University in Chicago and has taught classes at the OSF St. Anthony College of Nursing in Rockford.
His background in health care struck a chord with Terry Wilson, CEO for the Western Indiana Region of Sisters of St. Francis Health Services, which operates Catholic hospitals in Lafayette and Crawfordsville.
Wilson said it will be helpful to have a bishop who has studied health care issues, has an interest in them, and considers Catholic health care a priority.
“Those are all good things,” Wilson said. “I look forward to working with him when he becomes bishop. I think it will be wonderful to have someone with that background, training and experience to help lead our efforts for Catholic health care in the diocese. That is a very good thing, especially now when the challenges get tougher and tougher, as he said, to make sure Catholic health care is contributing in the way it should.
“To have somebody like that on your side, helping to lead the effort, is very valuable.”
“He seems extremely bright and extremely nice,” said Father Paul Cochran, pastor of St. Mary Church in Alexandria and St. Joseph Church in Elwood.
“Each bishop has brought something to the diocese. I am sure our new bishop will bring something to the diocese as well,” he said. “Bishop Bennett brought the gift of fraternity to the diocese; Bishop Carberry brought the gift of canon law; Bishop Gallagher brought a sense of the social mind of the Church; Bishop Fulcher brought a renewed sense of Vatican II and a commitment to peace and justice; Bishop Higi brought a renewed sense of liturgy and RCIA.
“With Bishop-elect (Doherty’s) background, I wonder if he will bring a gift of a renewed sense of ethics to the diocese.”
Pamelia Storms-Barrett, development director at St. Theodore Guerin High School, Noblesville, said she appreciated Bishop-elect Doherty’s expressions of support for Catholic schools, and the fact that he spent 14 years teaching full-time and part-time in Catholic high schools.
“Catholic education has been an important part of Bishop Higi’s legacy, and we want to make sure it is carried on,” she said. “Having a bishop with experience working in Catholic schools, especially Catholic high schools, can only benefit us. He knows about the various roadblocks we face and the hurdles we must overcome to provide quality Catholic education.”
Storms-Barrett said that Bishop-elect Doherty struck her as a “very pastoral person … and I think that will be very important. He wants to get out and meet people, and he has the vitality to do that.”
Joe Bumbleburg, a Lafayette attorney and lifetime member of the cathedral parish, said he was favorably impressed, too.
He said that Bishop-elect Doherty seemed to be a good match for the Lafayette diocese, because the Rockford diocese is somewhat similar to it demographically.
“He seems like a man of vast experience, with a great academic background,” Bumbleburg said. “Rockford may be bigger than Lafayette, but I suspect that it is not too far different demographically from what we are. As (Bishop Higi) said, it looks as if we have the man, and the opportunity, to create a new era.”
He praised Bishop Higi for passing on a diocese that is financially solid and attracting vocations to the priesthood.
“He has had his good days and his bad days, but he has weathered the storm pretty well,” Bumbleburg said. “The Church is not an easy thing to govern. He has presided over a very difficult time and done so with honor. He’s leaving the diocese in pretty good shape … you wonder how some bishops can even get up in the morning.”