Monday, May 23, 2005

No Chariots Please, We're Catholic

If there's anyone reading in the Northwest, just know that Alex Brunett wants his help quickly. He's got a national profile to get crackin' on....

It is the requirement of law that, from "provision" -- i.e. appointment -- bishops must be installed within two months of the announcement. This period is extended to four months when the bishop-elect requires ordination. (Of course, Bishop Braxton is exempt -- he got his two month leeway extended by a month because he absolutely cannot move into a half-renovated house in Belleville that wasn't all that decrepit in the first place.)

Usually, this period is used to the maximum. But Seattle will have its two auxiliaries ordained in record time -- on June 6, twenty-five days after their appointment. It takes me that long to get a coffee at Starbucks. Such a short turnaround is unheard of; forget the guest lists, the flowers, the big dinner: just get the bishops, the chrism and the bulla to the church on time -- it's a shotgun ordination!

On appointment day, in the post linked above, I waxed pleasured about Joe Tyson, the 47 year-old bishop-elect who is pastor of three parishes and holds a bunch of curial odd jobs. I noted that his background in communications (he studied it at UWash) would be a very good thing. Now we find something better....

How'd Fr. Tyson find out what was coming his way? He got a cellphone call from the archbishop while biking it around town. Now, being from Philadelphia, where Pharaoh has a chariot on call and even the auxiliaries have chauffeurs most of the time, this is incredible. A bishop on a bike... I can't imagine it. (Priests here have been known to buy Harleys, but they didn't last all that long. A priest of Camden once had a canary yellow Lexus, but was ordered to sell it... tres South Beach, it was.)

But this is the bishop of the future, and it's very exciting to see. I've been waiting for an American Anthony Fisher....

-30-

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