New England bishops make ‘ad limina’

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Ending their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican, the bishops of New England concelebrated Mass at the tomb of Blessed John Paul II, the pope who named most of them bishops.

“He touched each one of us here in some particular and tangible way,” said Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, R.I., who was the homilist at the early morning Mass Nov. 9 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“I’m sure we all have our own John Paul stories to tell,” Bishop Tobin told the 17 other New England bishops. His story involved the fact that in 1992, at the age of 44, he was named a bishop by the late pope.

Later, in a meeting, Pope John Paul said, “’You are very young to be a bishop.’ And I said, ‘Holy Father, with all due respect, that’s your fault.”

“As we think about the world today, the very secular condition which the church finds herself working in,” he said, the bishops think about the challenges they face, but they also remember what Blessed John Paul said repeatedly, “Do not be afraid.”

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston told Catholic News Service Nov. 8, “Certainly for all of us, it’s a joy to have known someone who is beatified.”

“He is the pope who made such an impact on our lives personally and on the history of our church,” the cardinal said. “He’s the one who named most of us, if not all of us, bishops.

“To be able to celebrate the Mass at his tomb is a great joy,” Cardinal O’Malley said.