Bishop James Vann Johnston, Jr.
Posted by: andymcnutt in Awesome Priests and Bishops, Saints, tags: bishop james vann johnston, catholic church, catholic renewal, catholic revival, good bishops, papal visit to the united states, pope addresses us bishops, pope john paul ii, pope john paul the greatBishop Johnston is the newly installed Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Guess what, folks, he's from Knoxville. Hooray! Not only that, but (then) Father Johnston was the first priest I spoke to about becoming Catholic. Needless to say, I'm a big fan. He's a good priest and I know he's going to be terrific as a Bishop.
Now check this out.
I was watching the Holy Father address the US Bishops last night, and who do I see sporting a nice aisle seat? Bishop Johnston! I paused the TV to show Kimberly. "Hey, that's Father Johnston - I mean BISHOP Johnston!" Camera hit him every time it shot the main aisle. Then came another treat.
5 Questions from the US Bishops to the Holy Father, asked after his address to the Bishops. Who gets to ask the first question? Hmmmm, let's see. Bishop James Vann Johnston!!! I'm loving this. Newest installed Bishop gets to address the Holy Father on behalf of his brother Bishops. How cool is that?
Listening to the Holy Father speak to the Bishops, I could sense his love for these men, even though we all know some Bishops are less than admirable in their actions and even sometimes lack of unity with the Holy Father and the deposit of faith in their teaching. He was very pastoral with them, bringing up the key issues that must be addressed without "yelling" at them. Pope Benedict has a lot more wisdom and patience than I do. No question about that. I know he has a plan in motion to help bring about the renewal the Church so desperately needs. We see bits and pieces of it, and it is encouraging to see. Of course, I remember that the Church is always reforming and always seeking renewal and improvement of its constituent leaders. After all, every one of us is called to be a canonizable saint.
Holy Father, I'm really glad you're here in the United States. I hope that everyone listens to what God has placed on your heart to share with us all. We love you, and we thank God for your ministry as our pastor.
April 17th, 2008 at 8:09 am - Edit
Last year my wife and I hand the privilege of participating in the Knoxville 40 Days for Life campaign. During the campaign we kept meeting people from Our Lady of Fatima Church in Alcoa. They all spoke very highly of Fr. Johnston. In fact, it was at Fr. Johnston requests that so many people from OLOF were present at the 40 Days for Life campaign. During that time our pastor Fr. O’connell from Holy Family in Seymour was on medical leave. One of the substitute priests we had was Fr. Johnston. He gave a wonderful homily and celebrated a very beautiful Mass. After Mass we stopped to thank
Fr. Johnston for helping out during Fr. O’connell’s absence. What should have been a 10 second “thank you” turned into a 10 minute talk with Fr. Johnston. He will be greatly missed here in Knoxville. But we are so happy to see him as a Bishop. Our only problem with his being named Bishop is that he was not named the Bishop of the Knoxville Diocese.