God Love the Man -- He Looks Like a Mitred Teddy Bear

David Choby was ordained yesterday as the 11th bishop of Nashville and shepherd of middle Tennessee's 65,000 Catholics. (Bonus points for the latticework on the alb.)

Here in the Northeast, we have a name for 65,000 Catholics: "five parishes." But I digress.

Coverage is trickling in. The Tennessean claims to have an article up about the ordination, but for some mysterious reason it links to something about taxes.

May this not be an omen.

I haven't yet seen the new bishop's coat of arms, so I don't know his motto. In case he chose a Latin one, smart money says he got it right on the first go-round.

Speaking of which, here is your "Scary Smile Shot of the Day"....

Frightening.

CLEARING THE RECORD: I've received notes from Middle Tennessee Catholics who were upset with the tone of this post. It wasn't my intent to offend anyone -- if anything, a native-son bishop who comes into office knowing his diocese, who loves it from experience and is committed to serving it and only it is not something we see every day, and it's a very good thing.

If anyone is, indeed, offended, then I apologize completely and wholeheartedly.

We need more "teddy bear" bishops; church leadership which shows an ease with being human inspires confidence in our people, especially in these days. As this appointment was well-made for all the right reasons, I pray that a thousand Chobys bloom.

Please join me in extending nothing but the best of wishes to Bishop Choby, and supporting him with the confident prayer that the new bishop's ministry may be wonderfully effective and uplifting for his flock, and that as bishop he may "preside in charity" in a way which I might one day be so graced as to attain.

PHOTOS: George Walker/The Nashville Tennessean

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