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When Pope Francis said he wanted priests who were shepherds with “the smell of the sheep” about them, he could have been talking about the three new auxiliary bishops he appointed to the New York Archdiocese to assist Cardinal Dolan in ministering to his flock.
Bishop John J. Jenik, Bishop John J. O’Hara and Bishop Peter J. Byrne—ordained to the episcopate Aug. 4 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral—have collectively chalked up decades of service as pastors and parish priests, working with and ministering to their people in the diverse communities of the archdiocese.
They know well the challenges their parishioners faced in their daily lives and in their faith because they were there alongside them, for the high points and the low.
And as they take up their crosiers and extend their ministries to embrace Catholics throughout the archdiocese, we offer these talented, holy churchmen our heartiest congratulations and prayerful support.
The three new bishops will join Auxiliary Bishops Gerald T. Walsh and Dominick J. Lagonegro, the only other active auxiliaries in an archdiocese that in recent years has seen several others retire or move up to head other dioceses. The new bishops also are the first to be assigned to Cardinal Dolan (the others were already serving here when he arrived more than five years ago), and they will be invaluable in helping him set the pastoral course for the archdiocese going forward.
One of them, in fact, is already doing that.
Since 2012, Bishop O’Hara, 68, has been director of strategic planning for the archdiocese, which includes the Making All Things New parish planning process—and after 20 years at St. Teresa’s on Staten Island as pastor and parochial vicar, he brings immeasurable insight to the job.
Bishop Byrne, 63, will likely find his fluency in Spanish to be an important plus as he begins his ministry as bishop. As pastor for the last year of St. Elizabeth’s, a largely Dominican parish in Washington Heights, he served a Hispanic population, just as he did in his nearly 20 years at Immaculate Conception on Staten Island, a more diverse but mainly Hispanic parish too.
Bishop Jenik, 70, also has a strong background in ministering to Hispanics as pastor of Our Lady of Refuge in the Bronx, where he’s been a hold-the-line force in his community since 1978.
He’s crusaded against drug dealers on their turf, holding so many prayer services and vigils outside top drug locations that he took to wearing a bullet-proof vest for protection. He’s agitated for better policing, becoming a welcome “thorn in the side” of the Fordham Bedford-area precinct. And he founded a nonprofit community development corporation that owns or manages safe and affordable housing for more than 3,000 Bronx families.
When the announcement of the bishops’ appointment came from Rome June 14, Cardinal Dolan told CNY that all three of them are good examples of the type of priests that Pope Francis is seeking for the role of bishops, with pastoral service a key element.
“He likes men who love their people, who live simple, sincere, faithful lives,” the cardinal said, “and who are known to be on the street with their people, who are particularly attentive to the poor.”
He said the pope wants bishops “who are esteemed by their brother priests, and he likes parish priests who are also diocesan priests, meaning that they are attuned to the pastoral challenges of the diocese,” and are generous with their time and active in leadership roles in archdiocesan initiatives.
All of which means the pope chose wisely.
These three bishops have been generous, humble, respected and hard-working pastors. That’s what we ask of our bishops, and that, we’re sure, is what they’ll continue to give.
