Monday, April 25, 2011

On-Deck Circle, Easter Edition

A wise pastor once said that "anyone who's lived Holy Week right should have no energy left to do anything on Easter Monday."

Hopefully you got to do exactly that, gang... on this end, though, the bliss of calm barely stretched 10 hours.

As ever, par for the course.

In a move the Hoosier crowd has (almost literally) been chomping at the bit about since Bishop Gerald Gettelfinger of Evansville reached the retirement age of 75 last October, multiple indications tip the morning to bring the appointment of the next head of Southwest Indiana's church of 95,000, which the departing ordinary's led since 1989.

Among earlier bits of buzz, the veteran prelate reportedly said at last week's Chrism Mass that "April showers bring May flowers," with a veiled reference to his succession. The diocesan weekly, The Message, likewise leads its current electronic edition and Facebook page with info on how the faithful can learn of the handover as soon as it's announced.

On a related note, as some have asked, while an effort to reconstitute the makeup of the Indy province's five dioceses had been broached from significant quarters over recent years, any movement on the idea was shelved amid Archbishop Daniel Buechlein's enduring health woes (the latest of which was a mid-March stroke from which he's still recuperating). If the question returns to the fore at all, its answer will reflect the consultations taken during the US bishops' impending, long-awaited ad limina visit to Rome, which begins in November and is expected to run through the first half of 2012.

Additionally, the Evansville nod will be the fourth appointment B16's made in Indiana in the last 18 months, following November 2009's move of Bishop Kevin Rhoades to Fort Wayne-South Bend, last May's elevation of Rockford's Msgr Tim Doherty to Lafayette, and January's astonishing choice of Boston's blogging Fr Chris Coyne as Indy's first auxiliary in nearly eight decades.

Keeping with house custom, the name of a priest being elevated to the episcopate is never revealed before Roman Noon, as these are the last hours of peace that he'll have before the floodgates open, and he starts hearing from people he last met in 7th grade... or, for that matter, during his days at Meinrad's.

Ergo, for now, keep the pick in your prayers. For all the rest, see you early tomorrow. (As if things weren't crazy enough already 'round here....)

And again, to one and all, every Easter blessing and good wish -- hope your Pasquetta's been easy and sweet.

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