There has been much to celebrate during the past 10 years in the Arlington Diocese under the leadership of Bishop Paul S. Loverde. From the opening of John Paul the Great Catholic High School in Dumfries last September to the dedication of the new transitional family residence last week in Woodbridge, it seems that each week brings another groundbreaking or dedication.

New church construction is underway at St. Theresa in Ashburn and All Saints in Manassas. The first phase of the priests’ retirement home in Annandale has started and the spirituality center in White Post is being renovated.

The bishop remains humble when reflecting upon all of the accomplishments during his tenure.

“The 10 years have gone by so quickly,” he said. “It seems almost like yesterday that I arrived. The longer I am here, the more I appreciate and am deeply grateful for a diocesan church that has such faith. This is a church that truly is alive with faith and charity, which is faith put into action.

“I am deeply grateful to the Lord and the Holy Father for entrusting to me such a wonderful gift that this diocese is. I am not worthy of it.”

Bishop Loverde said the tremendous increase in diocesan and parish ministries and programs during the past 10 years is “because of the great collaboration between myself and my brother priests, the deacons, women and men religious and the laity.”

He believes this collaboration can be seen, in one way, through financial support — exemplified in the success of the Bishop’s Lenten Appeal (BLA) and the Rooted In Faith — Forward In Hope capital campaign.

“That is certainly something to be grateful for,” the bishop said. “It happened because the clergy, religious and laity all worked together. But it’s not only that contribution. It’s also a contribution of time and talent.

“I have seen in this diocese how an enormously spirited people, who love the Church, have given not only of their money, but of their time and talent. I see so many volunteers who work in RCIA, in the various programs of Catholic Charities and in many other ways. You see it in the parishes where they assist with catechetical ministry.

“We’ve been able to increase and deepen our programs, assisting people in their faith development, because of this wonderful collaboration,” Bishop Loverde said. “I didn’t do it by myself. Obviously, you need someone to lead the symphony, but it wouldn’t happen without all these other people.”

The bishop said he is extremely proud of the strong pro-life understanding and action found in the diocese.

“Our people understand how the life issues are key,” he said. “Abortion itself is the foremost issue of injustice. Also we have people who see how all the social justice issues are connected. We have not lost sight of the fact that abortion is the primary one, that is, you can’t support life later if there’s no life to support at its beginning at conception. All the other issues are related.”

He said that even after 21 years as a bishop, he still finds confirmations “an absolute privilege and joy. And of course the greatest privilege of a bishop is to ordain priests.”

“We’re growing so much that we need far more priests than we currently have,” he said. “Nonetheless, I’d say over the years our vocations have done reasonably well. We keep inviting men to come to the priesthood. Right now we have 32 men in the seminary. Over the years we’ve had a goodly number of men and women enter the religious life.”

Bishop Loverde said he is proud that the Office of Vocations, under the direction of Father Brian Bashista, draws vocations to the priesthood and fosters vocations to the religious life.

“Another accomplishment is that we revised and brought back a program to train new permanent deacons after a 15-year moratorium,” the bishop said.

A feasibility study done early in the bishop’s tenure in Arlington identified Catholic education as a top priority among both clergy and laity. “And that’s just not limited to Catholic schools,” he said. “We focus on the formation of faith, from the earliest years to adult life.”

The catechetical programs and Catholic schools are strong, the bishop said, and youth ministry, under the leadership of Kevin Bohli, has taken off.

“Nearly 50 parishes employ youth ministers,” Bishop Loverde said. “And although it didn’t start under my tenure, over the years I have seen how WorkCamp continues to be a wonderful formation period in the lives of our young people.”

Facing difficult losses

The bishop and the diocese have suffered difficult losses with the recent deaths of Fathers Michael Kelly, George Griffin and Jack Hughes, and Bishop Thomas J. Welsh, Arlington’s first shepherd.

“Certainly, from the viewpoint of having these priests and my brother bishop with us on this side of the household of faith, it’s always been a great support,” Bishop Loverde said. “Whenever a priest dies, there’s a loss of that human contact. It reminds me that the bond isn’t broken, it’s just changed. We pray in faith that these good men will be rewarded by Our Lord and even now are interceding for us.”

The bishop said Father Kelly’s death was particularly painful at a different level because he was so young. “We don’t understand God’s plan,” he said.

The bishop said that Bishop Welsh’s death has affected him in a way that he wasn’t conscious of before.

Bishop Welsh was a visible presence in the diocese through his association with the Catholic Distance University. “When he died, I was conscious that there are no predecessors left,” Bishop Loverde said. “All of a sudden I’m the only one. That’s made a difference to me. It’s made me more aware of my own mortality.

“The death of any priest,” he said, “reminds us how much we need to continue to pray for more vocations.”

A busy schedule

The bishop keeps a busy schedule and rarely takes a day off. But he manages to find different ways to relax amid his episcopal duties.

“I enjoy reading the mystery novels of Mary Higgins Clark and her daughter, Carol,” he said. “They’re written well and one doesn’t have to be ashamed of what one finds. That’s not a secret endorsement.”

He also enjoys the month of July (usually) when he goes home to Connecticut to visit friends and relatives.

“Part of what’s restorative to me is being able to research and write talks and homilies,” the bishop said. He found a recent retreat he prepared on St. Paul to be extremely beneficial, even though it was very demanding.

“That energizes me,” he said. “I look forward to that. I love taking an idea and working it out. It is work, but it’s restorative. It’s not drudgery.”

Looking ahead

Although most of the major projects of the Rooted In Faith — Forward In Hope campaign have been completed, except for the construction of the priests’ retirement home, there are still goals on the horizon.

It’s not going to start anytime soon, but the bishop said he hasn’t forgotten about plans to open a new Catholic high school in Loudoun County. But, first enrollment at John Paul the Great needs to stabilize and diocesan officials need to make sure that feeder schools in Loudoun County are strengthened to support a new high school.

“Down the road there is the first phase of the retirement home for priests (near St. Michael Church in Annandale), which will have eight apartments initially,” the bishop said.

“I always thought it would be good at some point to have a retirement home for our laity. I’m not beginning those projects tomorrow morning. But I’m aware that down the road those are things for us to discern and ponder. I don’t want to raise false expectations.

“An ongoing goal has to be the maintenance and upkeep of our present facilities at the diocesan and parish levels,” he said. “The ultimate goal for me will always be the growth in Faith of our people.”

Keeping pace with growth

Unlike many dioceses around the country, Arlington continues to experience growth. Keeping one step ahead of the demand for new facilities and programs can be difficult.

“It is a challenge to keep pace with the growth,” Bishop Loverde said. “None of us knows what the future will bring. Some years ago, we never thought we would be in the middle of this economic crisis.”

There is a challenge to open new parishes and grow new ministries, “but how soon we do it depends upon factors that are out of our hands,” he said. “The current economic crisis may curb our expectations.”

Making tough decisions

A few years ago Bishop Loverde changed diocesan policy when he permitted the celebration of the 1962 Traditional Latin Mass in certain parishes, while at the same time expanding the ability for girls to serve at the altar.

“The governing factor for me (in making those decisions) is that I am very convinced that my role as a diocesan bishop and the role as pastor of a parish is to always allow what the Church truly allows,” he said. “The Church gives options and it’s my role to allow them, regardless of any personal preferences.

“As I looked at it, the ability to have women serve at the altar is an option that the Church approves and so is the fostering of the 1962 Mass,” he said. “My consideration and guiding criterion from the beginning was that I could not see doing one without the other since they are both legitimate options. That’s why when I did it, I did them together.”

The bishop said he realizes that not everyone sees the two issues the same way. “I think there are people who are more favorable to one and not the other,” he said. “We should offer what the Church allows.”

A Jubilee Year pilgrimage

Bishop Loverde recently led a pilgrimage to Italy to mark the Jubilee Year of St. Paul as designated by Pope Benedict XVI.

“The occasion for the pilgrimage was also my annual visit with our seminarians who are studying at the North American College in Rome,” the bishop said. “That part of the trip was very positive. Our five men are doing well. They are progressing in formation. It was a real joy for me to be with them.”

The bishop said he also witnessed the high caliber of young men studying in Rome, not only for Arlington, but for other U.S. dioceses as well.

“I was blessed to celebrate Mass with our seminarians at the altar of Pope John XXIII,” the bishop said.

“It was a great joy for me to lead this pilgrimage group in the Year of St. Paul,” he said. “We were able to be together and visit the Basilica of St. Paul, where he is buried, to have Mass there together, to tour the basilica and pray there at his tomb.”

The group also visited the Abbey of Tre Fontane where there are two churches, one built on the spot where St. Paul spent his last night before he was martyred.

“St. Paul was beheaded and tradition says that his head bounced three times and that is where you get the name Tre Fontane,” the bishop said. “As his head bounced, a fountain of water sprung up on each spot to water the earth.”

The pilgrims also visited the headquarters of the Trappists and Rome’s three major basilicas: St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major, as well as Florence, the Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino and Pompeii.

They also visited a church in Rome that for many centuries was closed to the public. It was built over the lodging where St. Paul lived when he first went to Rome, as referenced near the end of the Acts of the Apostles.

“It is newly opened during the Jubilee Year of St. Paul,” the bishop said. “I had never seen it, even when I was studying in Rome.”

The Saint Thomas More Center

The bishop will soon move into a new meeting space and residence next to the Cathedral of St. Thomas More. The former convent of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, who used to staff St. Thomas More Cathedral School, has been empty for more than a decade.

“We looked at various possibilities for the usage (of the building). After lots of discussion and discernment, and having consulted the Arlington Zoning Board, we decided its best use would be as a residence and meeting facility.

“It seemed to me that it would be irresponsible to let the building deteriorate,” the bishop said. “It became clearer to me that a diocesan bishop in today’s world has to do much more in terms of meeting people and groups in different ways.

“A bishop’s residence these days is not merely residential,” he added. “The diocesan bishop’s ministry now has taken on a broader and wider scope. So the building was renovated to bring it up to code and we will sell the current residence, which has gained equity over the years.”

The building will be called the St. Thomas More Center because the focus of the main floor will be for the ministry of the diocesan bishop, he said.

“The second floor is the living quarters. Therefore it will be beneficial not only to me, but for my successors. Although it’s not necessary, since the bishop is the pastor of the cathedral, and therefore, now close to the cathedral. It also means that I can do a little more walking to work.”