[Salvation]

Apostolic Succession, the Office of Bishop and Strife

I'll never forget sitting in on a graduate seminar in which a professor stated in a lecture that apostolic succession was a later second century development. He acknowledged that it is referred to in Irenaeus, but he seemed entirely ignorant of the fact that it is actually affirmed in Clement's epistle, a document that is clearly first century in origin and quite possibly written by an associate of Paul himself. (Of course, we might also mention Acts 1, where a successor is chosen for the apostle Judas!) Clement states:

"Through countryside and city [the apostles] preached, and they appointed their earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of future believers. . . . Our apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry" (42:4–5, 44:1–3).

Let there be little doubt: apostolic succession and the office of the bishop are tied together as early as Clement's letter--a fact often completely ignored by scholars.

The Danger of Uncharitable Speculation

The fact that there is intense speculation about the identity of the next Archbishop of Los Angeles in Catholic circles in California is not a Catholic oddity. Since the first century Christians have been speculating about, "Who will be the next bishop of x?" In and of itself, it's not impious for Christians to wonder who will be appointed their shepherd in the future--it's natural to think about such things.

I hasten to add though that such speculation can (and has) been carried out in ways that are sometimes harmful and uncharitable. I certainly do not want to be guilty of such a thing. The bottom line is this: any man who gives up the opportunity to have a family of his own but rather seeks to serve as a spiritual father to others has my undying gratitude. I may not understand everything they do, but I recognize that (1) they have knowledge and pastoral concerns I may not be aware of (i.e., consider those who might have accused Paul for keeping kosher while being among the Jews, while breaking those laws as he ministered to the Gentiles) and (2) I am not going to be held accountable for leading the bishops--others have been given that call (e.g., the Pope, their confessors, canonizable saints, etc.).

Who's It Going to Be?

That having been said, I can't help but wonder myself: who's it going to be?

The real answer is that it's anyone's guess. Indeed, such speculation is often wrong. Nonetheless, I thought I'd introduce the names most commonly mentioned. In his recent post on the subject, Rocco Palmo has identified this appointment as Pope Benedict's most important American placement. Because of this people will be scrambling for information about whoever gets the nod.

After the news is out people will immediately go to Wikipedia and the information posted about the appointment at his official Diocesan website. Yet there's a lot of good information, videos, personal stories, etc., that you have to really dig to find. Because I--like everyone else!--will be curious to know more about whoever the pope picks to succeed Cardinal Mahony, I thought I'd do a little poking around on-line and pull all of the most helpful things I find together into one place. If anything else, I saw this is a good opportunity to get to learn about some of the men who have devoted their life to the service of the Church.

It is also my hope that more Catholic readers will discover this blog, which is usually dedicated to biblical theology, academic research and the latest developments in Scripture scholarship. While this blog is widely known among the biblioblogs (=blogs devoted to academic Scripture study), it is less known in the Catholic blogosphere. Hopefully readers, finding this post interesting, will be encouraged to check out some of the other posts here and come back for more.

A Hispanic?

One important public source reporting on the rumors is the Los Angeles Times, which, in a story published back in April of 2009, suggested that insiders believe that the Pope is going to pick a Latino. Now, to be fair, such an "insider" would actually have to be able to get all the way "inside" Pope Benedict's mind to know who will get the appointment. It is, after all, the Holy Father who makes the final decision here. Given that he has gone against the conventional wisdom in making appointments in the past, it would seem difficult for even an important official to have certain knowledge about what he is going to do (unless the appointment has quietly already been made, of course).

Nonetheless, that a Hispanic will be appointed makes a certain amount of sense. The Hispanic Catholic community in the United States is extremely large. Yet, despite their large numbers, they do seem to be a bit underrepresented at the hierarchical level. Surprisingly, there are no Hispanic Cardinals in the U.S.

Since the Archbishop of Los Angeles is typically "given the red hat," appointing a Hispanic to LA would likely mean that the Hispanic community would finally see one of its own rise to the highest level of the Church's ecclesiastical hierachy. Such a pick would be especially well-received by the Hispanic community in Los Angeles, which makes up about 75% of the Catholic faithful there.

If this line of speculation is correct, the number of potential candidates for the post is narrowed down quite a bit. Moreover, the coadjutor-to-be is likely already a bishop somewhere--that is, he is probably someone who already has experience running a diocese. Furthermore, given the immense size of the Los Angelos archdiocese, it would seem likely that if a Hispanic Bishop is chosen he would likely come from a relatively large see.

Indeed, the article that ran in the Los Angeles Times identified three particular possible candidates, who each seem to have the experience needed:
1. Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto (age 54)
2. San Antonio Archbishop José Goméz (age 58)
3. Monterey Bishop Richard John Garcia (age 62)

So here's a little introduction to these three figures.

[Salvation]

Videos available at The Sacred Place

1. Bishop Jaime Soto (Sacramento)

Helpful sources:
--Bishop Soto's page at the Diocese of Sacramento's website
--Catholic-Hierarchy.org
--Wikepedia
--Rocco Palmo, "It's Official: It's Jamietime," Whispers in the Loggia (Blog), October 11, 2007 (Accessed: January 27, 2010) [among other things, this informative post reproduces excerpts from an article which ran in the Sacramento Bee which is no longer available on-line on the paper's website].

Technically speaking Bishop Soto was originally a native of the Diocese of Los Angeles, having been born in Inglewood. However, in 1976 he went over to the newly formed Diocese of Orange County as a seminarian. In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, Soto said that he had wanted to be a priest since the second grade. He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Orange in California in 1982. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Orange in 2000. In 2007 he was installed as the coadjutor of the Diocese of Sacramento and became the Bishop in 2008. He attended Columbia University where he received in Master's in Social Work. He became the Director of Immigration and Citizenship Services at Catholic Charities in 1986; he has been deeply involved with immigration issues. At the USCCB he serves as the head of the Board of Directors: Catholic Legal Immigration Network, INC.

In 2005 he was selected to give one of the Catechetical addresses at World Youth Day in Cologne, raising his profile. In 2006 his brother bishops voted to make him the chair of the Committee for Youth and Young Adults at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Notably, Bishop Soto beat out the highly popular bishop of Boston, Most Rev. Sean O'Malley, the other candidate for the post, which raised a few heads.

Yet, simply providing biographical data doesn't really help you get a feel for who Bishop Soto is. For a flavor of some of his style, read the following report from a talk he gave in December of last year at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Kansas, where he spoke to some 25,000 young people:

In his homily to all gathered at the conference, Sacramento, Calif., Bishop Jaime Soto spoke of the countless text messaging, facebooking, and twittering teens perform daily as a way to communicate with friends. As well, Jesus desires a relationship with every person, he said.

“He wants to text the truth of God’s mercy on your soul. Jesus is the Word, the ultimate Facebook of God…. Jesus does not twitter. Rather he humbled himself so that he could meet you, connect with you… He is the IP address of the way, the truth and the life.”

Bishop Soto also spoke of the misuse of the word “freedom” in today’s society, saying that “both truth and relationship are corrupted when the culture disconnects them to serve a distorted sense of freedom.

“Life has become a multiple choice question for which there are no wrong answers and the only criteria for choosing are one’s own impressions, preferences, desires, and fears… (which) become the self created avatars to which one clings while we are all adrift in a sea of mass information that threatens us, confuses us, and challenges us.”

Calling for the restoration of “a climate of freedom and an environment of hope,” Bishop Soto noted that we only need to look at the cross, to understand how much Jesus desires us. “The cross is both the medium and the message that Jesus sends us. When we respond to that call… we begin a dialogue that will connect you to the truth that will set you free.”

There is also a story about Bishop Soto that I should probably add here--though I am hesitant to do so. In 2008 Bishop Soto was invited to speak at the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries conference. As usual, Bishop Soto was loving and compassionate in his talk. Yet, he apparently made waves by affirming official Catholic teaching that homosexual acts are disordered in nature and are sinful. He also urged everyone to vote for Proposition 8 in California, the measure which eventually passed in California by a comfortable margin. As I said, I am hesitant to mention the story. After all, I don't see why it made headlines. The Bishop simply taught what the Church and the Bible teaches.

In fact, Bishop Soto has performed notable compassionate and generous service throughout his life in many areas, touching a countless number of people. Among other things he has served on Orange County HIV Advisory committee, the Orange County Legal Aid Society, the Orange County Coalition for Immigrant Rights, the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, the Orange County Congregation of Community Organizations, and the Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross. He was known for celebrating Mass monthly at Orange County's Prison and counseling AIDS patients.

His distinguished service to the community has been recognized over and over again, earningg him a number of awards. For example, in 2001 he was named Cypress College's Man of the Year. The school's website lists some of the honors he has received from other organizations, including, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Estrellas Award; the National Conference for Community and Justice’s Humanitarian Award; the Ohtli Recognition; the Orange County Community Congregation Organization Leadership in Action Award; and the Hispanic Development Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. I'd love to see more news stories about the various ways.

I might also add that Bishop Soto has a strong record of supporting the rights of the unborn. In 1991, before he was appointed bishop, he resigned his position on an advisory committee to the Santa Ana Unified School District to publicly disassociate himself from a decision it made to provide contraception and abortion related services at an elementary school clinic. He has been known to lead rosary processions to abortion clinics, and has recently declared a day of reparation for abortion in a letter written to his diocese.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of video available on-line of Bishop Soto speaking in English. Here he is with a rather hostile interviewer. I think he was the victim of an ambush here so keep that in mind. In short, this is not the best place to understand Bishop Soto's views on immigration. For a lengthy podcast interview go here. Nonetheless, because this is really the only video in English I can find of him:





There's also this video available of him speaking to a group in Spanish: