RICHMOND, Va. — July 11 was the 200th anniversary of Pope Pius
VII establishing the Diocese of Richmond — one of the first seven Catholic
dioceses in the United States. That alone was to be celebrated that day with
representatives from the diocese’s 138 parishes.
But COVID-19, as it has done for the past five months, changed
plans. It necessitated the postponement of the ordination Mass for a transitional
deacon in May and for two priests in June. The ordinations were included in the
bicentennial Mass, which was livestreamed.
While ordinations and historic diocesan events usually fill the
Cathedral of the Sacred Heart with worshippers, state-imposed limits on the
size of gatherings resulted in a congregation of 230 people, including 44
priests. Social distancing was observed, and masks were worn by all.
Richmond Bishop Barry C. Knestout began his homily by recalling
that the first drafts of William Butler Yeats’ poem “The Second
Coming” were originally titled “The Second Birth.”
“The phrase ‘second coming’ sounds very apocalyptic and
foreboding, but the phrase ‘second birth’ sounds hopeful and scriptural,”
he said. “For our bicentennial, we ask God to grace us with a new birth, a
new springtime of faith.”
Noting that in the first line of the poem, Yeats wrote “the
center cannot hold,” the bishop said that it is used to describe how the
political center is lost due to polarization.
“As we celebrate 200 years as a diocese, amid a time of
crisis and pandemic, we are reminded as bishop, priests, deacons, consecrated
and the entire people of God, that we are called to be a people always centered
on Christ,” Bishop Knestout said. “We are called to be people holding
the center — seeking union and communion with God and one another.”
There is no place for self-centeredness, nor for centeredness
focused on ideas, ideology, movements and activities, the bishop said.
“We can only find and hold the center when we are centered
on Christ,” he said. “Our local church of Richmond has a long,
significant and fruitful history, as it is centered in Christ.”
Bishop Knestout provided a brief explanation of the diocese’s
early days, noting it had always been “on the periphery, not the
center.”
“Our parishes have for most of our history been small, far
flung and poor,” he said. “But this, oddly enough, without a large
influential Catholic culture and Catholic population, has allowed us — has
required of us — to place Christ and his church very much at our center.”
Catholics persevered in faith, according to the bishop, despite
chronic challenges from shortage of priests, insufficient funds, Civil War and
the “social ills of racism and religious bigotry.”
“In good times or bad, God has never abandoned us,”
Bishop Knestout said. “Moved by this conviction, Catholics respond to the
needs around us by making sacrifices for the sake of the church, for the poor
and for the common good by seeking ways to alleviate the pain of others. As we
grapple with the pandemic and political and cultural turmoil, we are
strengthened to serve others and give witness to our faith.”
The bishop reiterated the diocese’s bicentennial theme of
communion and mission as he spoke about those to be ordained.
“As we celebrate our communion centered in Christ and
strengthened by this communion to go out on mission to the peripheries in
charity, service and evangelization, it is fitting that we also ordain those
who will serve this church as a deacon and priests,” Bishop Knestout said.
He noted that communion and mission were central to the ministry
of the ordained.
“By these two inspirations and focuses, the people of God
and the people of Virginia are led to a new birth, a new springtime of faith.
This new birth begins in labor, in challenges, in suffering,” Bishop
Knestout said. “It begins in the suffering and messiness of struggle and
want, battered and tempted by the allure of isolating independence. And seeking
grace to overcome temptations toward rebellious passions, we always return to
the center, to Christ, to communion.”
Olszewski is the editor of The Catholic
Virginian, newspaper of the Diocese of Richmond.
