Bishop Walsh: ‘Our encounter with Jesus Christ changes everything’

By Barb Arland-Fye
The Catholic Messenger

DAVENPORT — Calling people into conversation in a synodal way is about calling them into relationship with Jesus Christ and with one another, Bishop Dennis Walsh said in an interview with The Catholic Messenger last week.

The bishop was responding to questions about his impressions of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) fall meeting earlier this month in Baltimore, the first one he attended as Bishop of the Diocese of Davenport. He and his fellow bishops decided that a “synodal missionary style” would guide their organization.

 “I think Pope Francis’ whole push toward synodality is really about walking with each other and doing some communal discernment about where the Church should be going,” Bishop Walsh said. People sometimes confuse the word synod “to basically mean that we are just going to go with the will of the people or some democratization of the Church. I think there is a fear that it may lead to a distortion of Church teaching.”

“The Holy Father doesn’t say anything like that,” the bishop said. “I think he’s just asking us to discern how to proclaim the Gospel in this culture. How do we do it? None of us should presume to think that we have the answer to that question. We need to discern together about the best way for the Church to function in this modern age.”

Bishop Walsh referred to the late Bishop Kenneth Untener of Saginaw, Michigan for an example of synodality. In 1991, Bishop Untener declared that in his diocese all meetings at the diocesan and pastoral level should begin with a question about how their work affects or involves the poor. “It’s a great example of trying to transform parish councils into a pastoral council and to begin to see things differently,” Bishop Walsh said. The synodal process includes hearing the voices of those not at the table, he added.

An insight Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the U.S., shared in his talk at the bishops’ fall conference resonated with Bishop Walsh. Cardinal Pierre connected the synodal mission to Pope Francis’ new encyclical, “Dilexit Nos,” saying it is a call to return to the heart of Jesus and is essential to understanding the Church’s call to synodal evangelization, Eu­char­istic re­vival and Jubilee Year 2025.

Encountering Christ

“It’s taking the Church into a more relational model,” Bishop Walsh said. “Our ability to love one another flows first from having been loved by Christ himself. The locus of love is the heart. … We have a tough time talking with people we don’t love. It’s easier to have a relationship with people we love. Our encounter with Jesus Christ changes everything.”

The U.S. bishops decided to prioritize their relationship building efforts on young adults and others who have left the Church. “Most of the Church, myself included, is very concerned about the disaffiliation of young people from their involvement in the Church. How do you reverse that? How do you change that? How do you get them engaged?” Bishop Walsh asked. The answer lies in an encounter with Jesus Christ, he believes. “Once people fall in love with Jesus Christ, they want to know everything about him. … My experience has always been that kids will evangelize their peers.”

He shares this example from his ministry: “I was knocking my head against the wall for many years in terms of trying to figure out how to have effective youth ministry for kids. Oftentimes we say kids are overcommitted. … I’ve never been comfortable with those excuses.”

When he arrived at one of his parishes, “I think we had six kids coming to youth group on a regular basis and I knew there were approximately 2,000 kids of school age in the parish. It just seemed to me that something was wrong.” After hiring a new youth director, they began sending kids to summer camp. “I think we started with seven kids my first year and seven kids became 15 and 15 became 35. By the time I left the parish there were probably 50 high school kids coming to youth group on a regular basis. In the meantime, we started a junior high youth group of 75 kids.”

“What I learned is that young people weren’t coming to youth group because they were overcommitted. We weren’t giving them what they were interested in. What they were interested in was coming into an encounter with Jesus Christ. Once that happened, they’re the ones who evangelized their peers.” They invited their peers to youth group, summer camp and other activities. “That’s how it grew to 120 people in the course of five or six years.”

“It wasn’t the work of the priest or even the youth director. It was leading that handful of teenagers into an authentic encounter with Jesus Christ that changes everything. It sets them on fire and it works from there.” What kids want, Bishop Walsh said, is “to be able to have an encounter with the Lord who loves them for who they are and not what they do or what expectations people have for them.”

In solidarity with immigrants

Bishop Mark Seitz, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Migration, encouraged the bishops and their priests to speak loudly and unified on the issue of migration, especially in light of recent rhetoric from public figures. The USCCB issued a statement in solidarity with migrants; Iowa’s bishops issued their own statement days later.

Bishop Walsh referred to Bishop Seitz’s commitment to migrants as extraordinary. Bishop Seitz reminded his fellow bishops of Pope Francis’ deep concern for the plight of the millions of people who are migrating.

“The Church believes that everyone has the right to migrate for whatever reasons, whether to be able to provide for one’s family, for work, for safety, to avoid war, everyone has a natural right to migrate,” Bishop Walsh said. “At the same time, governments have the right to regulate.” However, Bishop Walsh said politicization of the migration issue on both sides of the aisle creates roadblocks. “Pope Francis says migrants aren’t political pawns. They shouldn’t be used as political pawns,” the bishop said. “We need to remind people that we have an obligation and a responsibility to care for them.”