New bishop will face challenges

Another viewpoint is a column The News-Herald makes available so all sides of an issue may be aired. Tom Wetzel lives in Willoughby.

Northeast Ohio will soon welcome a new bishop to shepherd its flock of Roman Catholics.

Despite tragic scandals and much downsizing over the past few decades, Catholics, albeit smaller, are still a mighty group of Christians whose footprint is woven into the very fabric of this entire community.

Whoever is chosen to lead us will learn quickly that this is a special community but one that faces some real challenges that won’t be solved overnight.

What our new bishop will find right away is the amazing generosity of so many Clevelanders who despite busy lives still find a way to do so much for those less fortunate such as volunteer at food kitchens or make regular donations to charities.

He will learn about people like Marlonn Webb, a police officer in Richmond Heights and member of the United States Air Force Reserve, who tries once a month to go downtown on a Friday with his family where they pick a spot and then cook food and feed any homeless persons they meet. The Webbs took Christ’s command of “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Officer Webb recognizes that service to others is truly a symbiotic experience for both the server and the served. He refers to their work as “Feel good Fridays” and it is apropos because he and his family feel good about what they are doing and those who are fed feel good about strangers caring for them in their struggles.

Our new bishop will also learn that this giving spirit is found in many faiths in our area. He will learn about all the outreach work of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland to include their ongoing support of Holocaust survivors. He will find out how the M.A.C.E. Islamic Center runs a regular food pantry for people in need. A January 23 Facebook post reported that volunteers helped distribute more than 2000 pounds of food that day.

This list could run for pages but what is clear is that spiritual institutions throughout northeast Ohio are a generous lot.

Besides meeting caring people, our new shepherd will have a chance to discover and experience some remarkable vistas on lands that border our beautiful Lake Erie. He may want to put on his hiking shoes and take advantage of an amazing Metropark system that rings the area. From a cultural perspective, his Excellency will have at his fingertips an amazing array of museums as well as the chance to regularly hear the world renowned Cleveland Orchestra.

But it won’t take long for our newly assigned bishop to recognize that he has his work cut out for him.

While trying to spread the Good News, he will be faced with a community still struggling with all the scandals that have racked the faithful.

He will also notice that although there have been improvements, the Cleveland area still struggles with racial tensions and self-imposed segregation. If he is prudent, he will reach out to our AfricanAmerican community and invite those who aren’t Catholic to worship under our roof together. Praising God is one form of love that easily looks past skin color or ethnicity.

Another challenge that he will face will be a crippling heroin epidemic that continues to cause untold pain for families who are losing loved ones in the prime of their lives.

Law enforcement can hardly keep up with it and there is a wickedness within the dealers who don’t seem bothered that they are killing off their customers. Even though our faith is based on mercy, our bishop may struggle as many of us do trying to forgive them for what they do.

When our Shepherd holds his staff and peers out onto this community, he will see that we as a society are under severe psychological strain.

Many of our families are breaking up due to divorce and suicides are leaving holes in the hearts of those left behind.

So many are suffering from addictions and guilt and many of us are slaves to materialism while others slowly slip into nihilism.

We are deeply in need of someone who will remind us of Christ’s message of hope with a fervor not seen in ages and reinforce to us that “With God, all things are possible.”

Whoever you are that comes to serve us, you will be embraced when you finally set foot onto our shores but I encourage you to hit the ground running!

Tom Wetzel