Pope Benedict has accepted the retirement of Archbishop Eusebius Beltran of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the (very early) retirement of Bishop Ronald Gilmore of Dodge City, Kansas. These moves leave four vacant sees in addition to nine prelates serving past retirement age.
Taking the reins in Dodge City will be Father John Brungardt, formerly the chancellor of the Diocese of Witchita. Slated to take over in Okahoma City is Bishop Paul Coakley of Salina, Kansas. In Coakley’s 6 years as Bishop of Salina, he has “raised the bar” for vocations: this year, the small (less than 50,000 Catholics) diocese has seventeen seminarians shown on the diocesan webpage. This is twice the number of seminarians Rochester boasts, despite having 6 or 7 times as many Catholics. Imagine what a good bishop could do with so many young men! The tiny diocese even has three priests ready to say the Extraordinary Form of the Mass–they just need vestments!
EXTRAORDINARY FORM OF THE MASS: Three priests of the diocese have recently
completed training to offer the extraordinary form of the Mass for groups that request it. We are in
need of matching vestments. If any parish or pastor has complete sets of vestments in good
condition they are willing to part with (fiddle back chasuble, stole, maniple, burse, chalice veil) in
any of the liturgical colors (gold, white, red, violet, green, rose, black) you can forward them to Fr.
Frank Coady or Fr. Randall Weber at the chancery. Please do not send partial sets. We are also in
need of Latin altar card sets. Thanks.
Pope Benedict has now appointed 18 of the 32 metropolitan archbishops in the United States. This number should rise to twenty in the next year (give or take), as Archbishop Cardinal Rigali is past retirement age, and Archbishop Niederauer will get there in June.
You may recall this post from December 7, which chronicled the canonically vacant sees, those run by prelates past retirement age, and the bishops who would be reaching retirement age before Bishop Clark does.
Tags: Latin Mass, Orthodoxy at Work, Pope Benedict, Vocations
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