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A KC priest on Denver’s new Auxilary: “This is huge!”
I got this note from a very fine priest I met at the Kansas City blognic:
Pretty cutting edge prediction.I am sure that you have heard about the new bishops named early this morning. [I sure have!]
Msgr. Conley, currently of the Diocese of Wichita and formerly in the Congregation for Bishops and graduate of the famous KU humanities program and now appointed to be auxiliary bishop of Denver, is to my knowledge the first bishop appointed recently who had regularly celebrated the TLM as part of his priestly service (not merely an occasional Mass here and there). [And that must have been a consideration, frankly. There is no way that it wasn’t.] I believe that he and another priest alternated celebrating the 8 AM Sunday TLM in Wichita, the only such Mass in the Diocese of Wichita. This is huge! Maybe second to Summorum Pontificum. [That would be a "YES" vote!] Now we have a bishop who is not only a friend of the Extraordinary Use of the Mass, like Arch. Burke, but one for whom the EU was an important part of his ministry. The EU is part of new bishop(s). It is part of the mainstream of the church. This is great news for fans of Tradition.
Father Brian Klingele
Archdiocese of Kansas City in KS
Well, we in Denver are glad to have him! Archbishop Chaput was very overworked and had been asking Rome for some help for a while. I think everybody (except maybe the good folks in Kansas [!]) are happy with the outcome! Deo gratias!
Comment by Exaudi — 10 April 2008 @ 12:08 pmIs this what you call “laying the groundwork”?
Comment by Barb — 10 April 2008 @ 12:12 pmWhat I’ve heard so far is that he was converted to the Fath while in the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas. He mentioned in his press conference that John Senior is his Godfather, and I just heard from a friend of mine that Fr. Jackson, FSSP the pastor of the local EF Chapel, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Littleton, was his college roomate.
I haven’t been this happy since the birth of my last child!
Deo Gratias!
Comment by ben — 10 April 2008 @ 12:22 pmAlthough I do not know Msgr. Conley as well as I would like, I cannot say enough good things about him. My wife knows him much better than I and her response at the news was: “Can we move to Denver?”
Comment by Del Torkelson — 10 April 2008 @ 12:25 pmOf course, the fact that Chaput also hails from Kansas, would seem to suggest my state is the minor leagues for Denver bishops.
Deo Gratias!
Msgr. Conley, during his time as Chaplain to the University of Dallas Rome campus, was responsible in many ways for my return to the practice of the Faith. He issued the challenge when I elected to do so that I should not do it [return] by half measures, but should delve into the deep treasures of the Faith and strive to live it fully.
He offered true pastoral solicitude to an angry, long-haired, Neo-pagan with a chip on his shoulder. Denver is blessed in this.
Following his advice has yielded my wife and I countless blessings.
I shall redouble my prayers for him, as the task the Lord has asked him to perform is now even more difficult than it was before.
As an aside, he may also be the first Bishop with a Facebook page.
Comment by Flambeaux — 10 April 2008 @ 12:32 pmWait a minute – if this was the “first”, that is evidence that the appointment had nothing to do with his TLM celebration.
Comment by Gerry — 10 April 2008 @ 12:41 pmThis is great. We in the diocese of Wichita are very pleased to have
Comment by Sekman — 10 April 2008 @ 12:55 pmso many bishops from our diocese. Msgr. Connelly as well as being the
pastor of Blessed Sacrament parish in Wichita occasionaly prays the
TLM at St. Anthony’s in Wichita, occasionaly Bishop Eumertis Eugene Gerber
prays the mass, they only pray the mass when Fr. Jarrod Lies is not
available. It would seem to be correct that Fr. James Jackson of the FFSP
would have been his room mate in college as he did go to KU and was a
priest of the Diocese of Wichita.
What’s the good word on the other bishops-elect?
Comment by Ed — 10 April 2008 @ 1:01 pmMaybe someone can help me with this. I am always glad when good and holy priests are raised to the Episcopate. However, with so many open See’s, isn’t the impact considerably lessened by the appointment as an Auxiliary, rather than Ordinary, Bishop?
Granted, good auxiliaries almost always become ordinaries, but wouldn’t it be a more powerful statement to appoint him to Knoxville, Biloxi, or Charleston?
And yes, Fr. Z., I am not letting the good be the enemy of the perfect!
Comment by Brian Day — 10 April 2008 @ 1:04 pmOh, Wait! I think I just answered my own question. :-)
Barb wrote:
Comment by Vincenzo — 10 April 2008 @ 1:05 pmSince we are hoping to move to the archdiocese of Denver later this year,
this is most welcome news. I look forward to the TLM at the cathedral
and to hear of it taught in the seminary.
Deo Gratias!
Comment by magdalen — 10 April 2008 @ 1:14 pmSince we are hoping to move to Denver, this is welcome news indeed. I hope to
hear of the TLM at the cathedral and that it will be taught at the
seminary.
And the last auxiliary is now the Archbishop of San Antonio…
Comment by magdalen — 10 April 2008 @ 1:16 pmSince we are hoping to move to Denver, this is welcome news indeed. I hope to
hear of the TLM at the cathedral and that it will be taught at the
seminary.
And the last auxiliary is now the Archbishop of San Antonio…
Comment by magdalen — 10 April 2008 @ 1:17 pmAlong these lines, is anything known about Bishop Bates, who is being appointed to Des Moines – other than that he worked for, and was close to, Archbishop Jean Jadot when the latter was Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.?
Comment by mbd — 10 April 2008 @ 1:20 pmAn interview with the soon-to-be bishop:
http://www.cdowk.org/catholic_advance/extras2.html
Covers a lot of good ground, including his conversion and the fact that he likes all the correct sports teams.
Comment by Del Torkelson — 10 April 2008 @ 1:54 pmI just heard the news via email. He is a really good buddy from KU and Rome.
Comment by RBrown — 10 April 2008 @ 1:56 pmSomeone hinted at this.
When Msgr Conley was at KU, he shared a house with 3 other men. One went to prison. Of the other 3, all from KC, Conley and one other were converts. Abp Strecker was busy wrecking the KC archdiocese, so only one of the three, James Jackson, looked into studying for the priesthood there. He had a bad experience with the vocations director.
All three KC men went to Wichita.
Of the three living in the same house, Paul Coakley is now bishop of Salina, Conley will go to Denver, and the third, Fr Jackson FSSP was rector of the seminary in Nebraska.
All thanks to John Senior
Comment by RBrown — 10 April 2008 @ 2:07 pmIs Archbishop Chaput destined for Los Angeles?
Comment by Kim — 10 April 2008 @ 2:12 pmKim, I think the good people of Denver would RIOT if their beloved Archbishop was stolen away. :-) Seriously, the few I’ve met from Denver just love him.
Presumably this Monsignor Conley will spend some time under
Comment by Margaret — 10 April 2008 @ 2:37 pmAbp. Chaput’s tutelage and get posted to another large diocese, a la Abp. Gomez, who began as an auxiliary in Denver and now heads San Antonio. Maybe Msgr. Conley will be ready for LA by the time Cdl. Mahoney reaches retirement in 2011??
From the Interview
After I graduated from K.U. in 1977, I worked construction in Kansas City for about six months and saved up enough money to travel to Europe. Some friends of mine, who were also students of the IHP, discovered a Benedictine Abbey in France where Latin and Gregorian chant were still very much alive and so a group of us ended up staying there during that spring and summer. While I did seriously consider a vocation to the monastic life, I felt that God was calling me back to Kansas to get married and raise a family.
For those of you who don’t know this monastery in which these men stayed was Fontgambault monastery in France. The other graduates stayed at the monastery and in 1999 came to the United States and founded Our Lady of the Annunciation Monastery at Clear Creek. This weekend Bishop Slattery of the Diocese of Tulsa will be celebrating pontifical High Mass at the Monastery for the dedication.
The fruits of the work of Dr. John Senior continue on today long after his death. The Integrated Humanities Program was the best thing that ever happened to the University of Kansas.
Comment by Sekman — 10 April 2008 @ 3:19 pmJohn Senior strikes again!
Comment by LCB — 10 April 2008 @ 4:22 pm2 men became bishops, 1 became a rector, and the other went to prison.
What did he go to prison for? This could turn into a great joke!
Comment by LCB — 10 April 2008 @ 4:25 pmBishop Coakley was my spiritual director in the seminary. Any friend of Coakley is a friend of mine. Conley, Coakley, and Jackson all went to the Mount (as well as KU). There is no reason why Father Jackson couldn’t become a bishop. Maybe an Auxillary Bishop in St. Louis. Imagine a FSSP priest being ordained a bishop?
Comment by Fr. E — 10 April 2008 @ 4:38 pmIf Chaput goes to L.A., I think that Bishop-elect Conley could step right in and do a fine job, every bit as good as Chaput.
Comment by peretti — 10 April 2008 @ 5:00 pm2 men became bishops, 1 became a rector, and the other went to prison.
What did he go to prison for? This could turn into a great joke!
OK, possibly a great joke, but quite possibly—in these times—one that most of us would have no stomach for. In any case, after our laugh, perhaps a prayer for the man who went to prison?
Comment by Animadversor — 10 April 2008 @ 5:10 pmI reside in the Wichita diocese, and while I do not know Msgr Conley personally, I have heard nothing but good of him. I did not know that he and Bishop Coakley were roommates while at KU. As a WSU alumnus, I rarely have much good to say of KU, but this may change my mind! Just kidding, KU grads—congrats on the BB championship, BTW.
Interestingly enough (to me, anyway), both Archbishop Chaput and Bishop-elect Conley have Native American heritage (Pottawatomi and Wea tribes, respectively, I think). I would bet this is the first time that an Archdiocese had tw