Barb Arland-Fye and Bishop Dennis Walsh record Catholic Messenger Conversations earlier this month at KALA studios on the St. Ambrose University campus in Davenport.
The Catholic Messenger
In the latest Catholic Messenger Conversations podcast, Bishop Dennis Walsh talks with Barb Arland-Fye about his new role as 10th Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport.
Bishop Walsh shares when and where he received word of his appointment in June. “It was a Sunday afternoon when I got the call. I was doing a Spanish Mass” in Delphos, Ohio. After Mass, he noticed that someone from an unknown number had called several times. He assumed it was a priest from Mexico with whom he had been corresponding, but it was the apostolic nuncio, Cardinal Christophe Pierre. “It was quite a surprise,” the bishop said. He immediately knew what the call was about. “There’s no other reason the nuncio would be calling me,” the bishop assumed. After a brief conversation, the nuncio asked then-Father Walsh if he would accept the appointment. “I told him, ‘Yes, I do.’” When the future bishop shared the news with his mother, she responded, “What? You?” and became emotional once the news sunk in.
Bishop Walsh got to know other future bishops in Rome prior to his ordination. He believes Pope Francis seeks pastoral bishops who understand where the people in the Church are and the difficulties that they face. The future bishops Bishop Walsh met “are just ordinary priests who love the Church, and that would probably be the common denominator.”
Listen to this and other Catholic Messenger Conversations podcasts at www.catholicmessenger.net/
podcasting or by searching for “Catholic Messenger Conversations” on your favorite podcasting app!
