Habemus Episcopus!

Yes, today we have a new bishop! The diocese announced yesterday that Pope Benedict 16th has chosen a new bishop to take over the reigns of the Allentown diocese in July when Bishop Edward Cullen retires. Monsignor John Barres is formerly the chancellor of the diocese of Wilmington and was the bishop's right hand man in that position. He has graduate degrees in theology as well as business and is a Princeton grad where he majored in English and was on the basketball team. Interestingly he was baptized by Bishop Fulton Sheen, who is being put forth for canonization.
His father and mother were former Moravian ministers who had converted to Catholicism and come from Bethlehem PA.(My college town) He has many Moravian relatives still in the local area. Inter-religious dialogue and ecumenism are going to be a priority for him.
Every bishop sets the tone of his bishopric by formulating a motto. His motto is going to be "Holiness and Mission." Sounds great to me!
As an aside, it's interesting that our local Allentown paper that is secular and known to be fairly anti-Catholic dedicated the headline and entire front page to this news. Despite, the attempts to marginalize the Church, the world still seems to be pretty interested in what the Catholic Church does. The choosing of a bishop goes back to the time of the Early Church and the concept that the apostolic mantel that will be layed on him during ordination can be traced back in an unbroken fashion to the original apostles still gives me chills! That's why it's called the Apostolic Church.

Let's pray for our new bishop. We look forward to the new evangelization that will come under the direction of this "JP2 priest."