Open wide the doors for Christ

Even in new USCCB role, ‘I am committed to serving you loyally as your shepherd’

Among the spiritual riches of our Catholic tradition is the testimony of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the 16th-century Spanish soldier-turned-priest and founder of the Society of Jesus. 

Saint Ignatius was a man who wrestled deeply with his place in the world and in the Church. Again and again, he had to resist the instinct to write his own story and instead surrender to the promptings of God. In doing so, he refined his understanding of life in the Spirit, leaving the Church with treasures such as the “Spiritual Exercises,” which contain his “Rules for the Discernment of Spirits.”

I have drawn great benefit from Saint Ignatius’s spiritual writings throughout my life as a priest and bishop. 

One articulation in particular has stayed with me, what Saint Ignatius calls the “First Principle and Foundation.” It begins, “Man is created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save his soul.” 

Within this concise statement about our purpose and responsibility before God, Ignatius reminds us, “it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things in all that is allowed to the choice of our free will and is not prohibited to it; so that, on our part, we want not health rather than sickness, riches rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, long rather than short life, and so in all the rest; desiring and choosing only what is most conducive for us to the end for which we are created.” 

This Ignatian wisdom lies beneath Christ’s invitation to Simon Peter in the Gospel: “Put out into the deep water” (Luke 5:4). Something shifted within that fisherman-turned-apostle when he chose holy indifference and desired only what Jesus was inviting him to do. 

In choosing this phrase as my episcopal motto, I always have sought to imitate both Peter and Saint Ignatius. I try to discern God’s voice, to follow his will, and to trust that by his power, a “great number of fish” will be brought to Christ through my small cooperation.

In recent weeks, the Lord, through his Church, has invited me again to “put out into the deep.” On Nov. 11, my brother bishops of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) elected me to serve as president of the conference. It is a humbling honor and a significant responsibility that places my ministry in a much more public light.

In the hours, days and weeks following my election, I have received so many kind words of congratulations and encouragement, both personally and through various social media platforms. (However, I have to admit that not all media responses have been kind, but that is the price of being a public figure these days!) 

I am certainly grateful for this display of support, and I humbly ask for prayers as I begin this new chapter in my episcopal ministry.

To you, the faithful of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, I desire to reassure you that I am committed to serving you loyally as your shepherd. This election does not mean that I am leaving Oklahoma or stepping away from the ministry that I hold so dear. Oklahoma is my home, and my service to you remains at the heart of my vocation.

This new role, however, does bring additional responsibilities. The USCCB exists to support the bishops of the United States in the pastoral functions entrusted to them by Jesus: sanctifying, teaching and governing. 

Alongside the bishops, the conference is served by a large staff of lay men and women, priests and religious. As president, I function as the chief executive. I also chair the Administrative Committee and preside at the conference’s plenary assemblies, which I already attend twice each year.

Additionally, as the public face of the USCCB, I am entrusted with broader civic and ecclesial relationships. I must represent the interests of the Catholic Church in the United States in the public square and within the Universal Church. This includes building relationships with national civil leaders such as the president and vice president, members of Congress and others whose work intersects with the moral and social demands of the Gospel. 

I also work closely with the apostolic nuncio to support and help carry out the initiatives of the Holy Father in the local churches of our nation.

While all of this responsibility can indeed seem overwhelming at times, I am consoled by that first principle of Saint Ignatius: “I am created to praise, reverence and serve God our Lord.”

So, it gives me joy to serve him in this capacity as president of the USCCB, and I can clearly hear the encouragement of Saint John Paul II, speaking with the words of the Savior, “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.”