Bishop starts with mercy
Holley packs food for homeless after installation as leader of diocese
The new Catholic bishop began his ministry in a way befitting a man of faith named Martin in a city of faith called Memphis. With words and acts of mercy. The words came first as the Most Rev. Martin D. Holley was installed as the fifth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis.
The acts came after the special mass. Holley helped others pack 2,000 food bags for the homeless and divide floral arrangements for the mass into smaller bouquets for residents of the Ave Maria Nursing Home.
“Today’s gospel not only invites and challenges us, but it commands us to love and to bring the mercy of Jesus Christ into the lives of those who need to know his love and mercy,” Holley said in his first homily.
Hundreds of people attended the special mass, including dozens of priest and bishops, three cardinals and the papal nuncio, the Vatican’s U.S. ambassador.
Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the papel nuncio, read a letter from Pope Francis. “The Diocese of Memphis is in need of a shepherd. We very confidently turn to you.” Holley, 61, accepted the charge. “With faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ, and with love of God in my heart,” he replied, “I do accept the pastoral care of the people of God in the Diocese of Memphis.”
Holley succeeds Bishop J. Terry Steib, bishop of Memphis since 1993. He announced his resignation after he turned 75 in 2015. He remains bishop emeritus.
The Catholic Diocese of Memphis includes 47 parishes and more than 65,000 members in Memphis, Jackson and across West Tennessee.
Wednesday’s mass was held at the Cook Convention Center, three blocks from St. Peter Catholic Church, the oldest Catholic church in West Tennessee, founded in 1840.
The church is also the site of the St. Martin de Porres Shrine and Institute.
“Our mission is to reach beyond boundaries of race, class, denomination and nationality as we promote social justice, spiritual growth and the healing works of St. Martin de Porres,” say the Dominican Brothers.
The object of the shrine is the first Catholic saint of mixed European, African and Hispanic descent.
Born in Peru in 1579, Juan Martin de Porres Velázquez was the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a free slave woman from Panama.
He sold his things to buy bread for prisoners. He founded an orphanage and a hospital for abandoned babies. He challenged racial prejudices of his own Dominican brothers.
Wednesday’s mass took place less than a mile from another shrine to another Martin, the National Civil Rights Museum.
Born in Georgia in 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was the son of a preacher and a teacher.
He led a nonviolent, gospel-based movement for freedom and social justice.
He spoke often of the “spirit born of the teachings of the Nazarene, who promised mercy to the merciful, who lifted the lowly, strengthened the weak, ate with publicans and made the captives free.”
Martin Holley was born on the last day of 1954. He was named for his family’s local parish priest.
His episcopal coat of arms, introduced at Wednesday’s mass, includes a wavy line that represents Pensacola on the Gulf of Mexico.
That’s where Holley was born and raised. That’s where his family converted to Catholicism while he was still in his mother’s womb.
In the middle of the shield is a white plow with silver blades.
It’s a symbolic reference to Luke 9:62, when Jesus says, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
It also commemorates his mother’s ancestors who were Southern sharecroppers.
The coat of arms also includes Holley’s episcopal motto, drawn from Psalm 107: IN AETERNUM MISERICORDIA EIUS - HIS MERCY ENDURES.
“Our love for him is a response to his exceeding kindness and mercy toward us,” Holley said during his homily.
“Today let us pray for the intercession of our lady of mercy, that we might be like her son to be instruments of his mercy and his love to all.”
Holley’s first day as bishop of Memphis was also the first of what he’s calling 100 Days of Service — six service projects he’s leading with Catholic Charities of West Tennessee.
Mercy is more than a motto to Holley. It’s a ministry for another Martin in Memphis.