New Bishop Schuster: ‘Our world needs Jesus’

SEATTLE – Near the end of his two-and-a-half-hour ordination Mass full of pageantry and applause, laughter and tears, glorious music and ancient symbolism, Bishop Frank Schuster made one thing clear: “All of it means absolutely nothing without Jesus.”

Bishop Schuster, a native of Western Washington and a priest of the Archdiocese of Seattle since 1999, was ordained an auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese May 3 at St. James Cathedral.

The centrality of Jesus was clear throughout the Mass — from the entrance procession, led by a cloud of incense and the cathedral’s “Great Cross” crucifix; to Archbishop Paul D. Etienne’s homily, in which he emphasized that the “two most important aspects” of every bishop’s life are “to know Jesus Christ, and to be known by Jesus Christ”; to Bishop Schuster’s joyful distribution of Christ’s body and blood in the Eucharist.

The entrance procession included representatives of the archdiocese’s cultural communities, some 100 priests and nearly a dozen bishops.

As Bishop-elect Schuster entered the cathedral, friends snapped photos and waved from the pews as one yelled, “Way to go!”

After the procession, Archbishop Etienne greeted the assembly, saying, “Brothers and sisters, we welcome you to this joyous occasion of this local Church.”

Following the Mass readings, Father David Mulholland and Father Jim Johnson presented Bishop-elect Schuster for ordination. Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the apostolic nuncio to the U.S., then read an apostolic letter from Pope Francis declaring his appointment.

The bishop-elect then walked up and down the aisles of the cathedral displaying the official parchment, stopping to hug his beaming parents, Jack and Gini Schuster.

Responding to the congregation’s exuberant and extended ovation for the bishop-elect, Archbishop Etienne prefaced his homily by remarking, “After the announcement that Father Frank was named our auxiliary bishop, one of our priests told me, ‘Archbishop, you can forget being the most popular now.’” As the crowd laughed, he added, “That’s the longest presentation of a papal bull I’ve ever witnessed!”

The archbishop noted that the day’s feast, celebrating the apostles Philip and James, was “a great day to ordain a new bishop,” a successor of the apostles.

The apostles were called by Jesus to be “witnesses to his passion, death and resurrection,” the archbishop said.

“They were the ones to first receive the great commission to go into the world to preach the Gospel and to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And this is still the primary ministry of bishops today, and indeed of every baptized person.”

For a bishop’s ministry to be fruitful, he must have “intimate knowledge of Jesus,” the archbishop said.

“Loving Christ, following Christ, serving Christ concretely in others, this is the life and ministry of the bishop.”

Archbishop Etienne then talked about “being known by Christ,” which he acknowledged might seem obscure.

“We might think, and to some degree rightly so, that of course Christ knows us,” he said. “But what I am speaking of here is the conscious process by which we invite the Lord into the mystery of our own life. Being known by Christ is being completely vulnerable with Christ, about our weakness, our fears, our sinfulness, our loneliness. In allowing ourselves to be known by Christ, the Lord helps us to know ourselves and thus to grow in maturity and grace.”

The archbishop closed his homily by addressing the bishop-elect: “You have been given a grace and a privilege to proclaim the Gospel of Christ. May you continually grow in the knowledge and love of Christ, professing this faith and expressing this love to the people of God.”

After the homily, Bishop-elect Schuster stood before Archbishop Etienne and declared his resolve to guard the faith and to discharge the office of bishop.

He then prostrated himself before the altar for more than seven minutes as the assembly chanted the litany of the saints.

Then came the laying on of hands and the prayer of consecration, the heart of the ordination rite. As the bishop-elect knelt before the altar, Archbishop Etienne placed his hands on his head, followed by the co-consecrators, Seattle Archbishop Emeritus J. Peter Sartain and Bishop Joseph Tyson of Yakima, and the other bishops present.

Following the prayer of consecration, Bishop Schuster received the anointing of his head. He wisely removed his glasses before Archbishop Etienne poured a large cruet of chrism oil over him, praying, “May God, who has made you a sharer in the high priesthood of Christ, himself pour out upon you the oil of mystical anointing and make you fruitful with an abundance of spiritual blessings.”

The new bishop then received the symbols of his episcopal office:

• the Book of the Gospels, a reminder to “preach the word of God with patience and sound teaching”;
• a ring (presented by his parents), a “seal of fidelity” to the Church;
• a miter (presented by his brother and sister-in-law), a reminder to pursue holiness, “so that, when the chief Shepherd appears, you may merit to receive an unfading crown of glory”;
• and a simple wooden crosier (presented by his sister and brother-in-law), a reminder to “keep watch over the whole flock.”

Bishop Schuster then took his seat among his brother bishops as the congregation gave a standing ovation.

After the Liturgy of the Eucharist, Bishop Schuster processed through the cathedral offering his first blessing as a bishop, accompanied by Archbishop Etienne and Archbishop Emeritus Sartain.

The new bishop then went to the ambo. “This has been a very long liturgy, and so my comments will be mercifully concise,” he said — and given the number of people he had to thank, the 17 minutes did seem impressively brief.

He expressed his gratitude to God, to Pope Francis and to the papal nuncio. “When you called me — on February 26 at 6:23 p.m., if you care to know — I was really impressed by your kindness, generosity and warmth as you told me my life is over,” he quipped.

He thanked Archbishop Etienne for his trust in him (“Clearly, you are a man of faith!”); his “newest brother in arms,” Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio Elizondo; and all the bishops, priests, deacons and laypeople he has worked with.

Turning to his family, he said, “Where do vocations come from? This vocation came from you, and so words cannot convey how grateful I am to you, especially you, my mother and my father.”

Wiping his eyes and confessing, “I’m a hot mess right now,” he asked his parents if they remembered when he told them he was thinking of going to seminary.

“What you told me was so precious back then and so liberating. You told me to follow my heart. I have so much to thank you for, but I want to thank you especially for that: allowing me to follow my heart, to follow the Lord.”

For much of the liturgy, Bishop Schuster displayed a huge smile, and his remarks were full of laughter, but he ended on a serious note.

“My friends, we live in very, very dark times,” he said. “Now more than ever, our world needs Jesus. And what this means is, the world needs you.”

He asked those present to “take the grace God has given you in this liturgy … into the streets, into the byways, to the marginalized, to those on the periphery, to your workplaces, into your schools and, yes, into your homes.”

“Our sacred duty now is to go out into the world and celebrate our common vocation of pointing people to the Lord,” he said.

“My friends, this is so very important, because no matter what it is that you are going through personally right now, or whatever is weighing heavy on your soul right now with what is going on in the world today … the remedy for the dark times we live in is forever Jesus, the light of life.”

Read earlier coverage of the ordination, including Archbishop Paul D. Etienne’s full homily and the details of Bishop Frank Schuster’s motto and coat of arms.