Who's up for some apostolic succession?

What a wonderful morning! We learn today that the Holy Father has appointed Bishop Ronald Gainer of Lexington, KY to be the 11th Bishop of Harrisburg. Bishop Gainer succeeds our beloved Bishop Joseph McFadden who died unexpectedly on May 2, 2013.

It's been a long wait, but many dioceses have to wait much longer than us. I'm particularly excited to get to know our new spiritual shepherd and I will certainly be following the story closely.

If there's one thing that this process always excites me about more than anything else, it's APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION!!! Jesus never indicated that the sole means of transmission of the faith would be through reading the Bible. As Catholics, we deeply revere Sacred Scripture as the inspired Word of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph 105 that "God is the author of Sacred Scripture." Saint Jerome says, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." But remember that so too does Saint Augustine get to the heart of it when he writes, "I would not believe in the Gospel, had not the authority of the Catholic Church already moved me."

There were three particular "stages" in the "formation of the Gospel" as The Catechism puts it in paragraph 126. 1) The life and teaching of Jesus, 2) the oral tradition, and 3) the written Gospels. The Bible as we know it, compiled in its totality with chapters and verses did not exist for centuries. It was a painstaking process that worked through various Church Councils and, even after the official "canon of scripture" was determined authoritatively, most people wouldn't be able to have their own personal copy for a few more centuries due to dismal literacy rates and limited printing capability. The fact is that Jesus never intended for the faith to be primarily transmitted through the Bible alone ("sola scriptura").

However, it has been the consistent teaching for 2,000 years that Christ first and foremost established a Church - a visible, distinct, universal (i.e. "catholic"), authoritative, teaching Church. He breathed on the apostles (not everyone else mind you) and gave them his authority to forgive sins, drive out demons, and make him physically present in the Eucharist which he commanded them to do routinely for all time. As Saint Paul wrote a few decades later, it is this Church that is the "pillar and foundation of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).

Jesus said to apostles, "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me" (Luke 10:16). He gave them all authority and then sent them out into the world to proclaim the Gospel and to teach. They did this to their last breath - and they passed on that authority to successors who did likewise. This chain is unbroken. It has been deeply tested, strained, stretched, scarred - you name it. There have been many men who have served in this capacity unworthily. But that's just it! It's not THEIR Church - it's Jesus Christ's Church. The Church he established. The Church he swore he would never abandon, and he never has.

Now that Church sends us a successor to our dear Bishop McFadden! May our Blessed Lord watch over Bishop Gainer and bless him with health, a deep and courageous faith, and many years of ministry in the Diocese of Harrisburg.