Florida Catholic | Bishop's Pastoral Letter Soon

Bishop hopes to enlighten through letter

By focusing his pastoral letter on the Eucharist, Bishop Lynch has chosen to follow in the footsteps of other church leaders, such as Pope John Paul II.

CARLOS BRICENO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 10.12.07

Beginning in late November, Bishop Robert N. Lynch will speak at parishes and schools around the diocese about his pastoral letter on the Living Eucharist which will be released during Advent.
ED FOSTER JR. | FC FILE

ST. PETERSBURG | In the old days — hmmm, say, about 2,000 years ago — when a leader of the church wanted to communicate with others, he wrote a letter: for instance, St. Paul writing to the Corinthians.

Nowadays, when the local shepherd of the church, the bishop, wants to reach out to the faithful, he writes a pastoral letter.

And that's exactly what Bishop Robert N. Lynch has done regarding the Living Eucharist initiative, the diocesan renewal process that will occur in several stages over the next few years.

The bishop's pastoral letter, about which he will speak at parishes and schools around the diocese starting in late November, will be released during Advent and will focus specifically on the Eucharist.

So what is the letter used for?

"It's a way for him to pastor his people and to bring them up to the level of celebration that we should be," said Father John Tapp, pastor at Holy Family Parish in St. Petersburg and secretary of the diocese's worship office. "To give honor to God and to build up the church as it should be built up. … It's a means to touch the average person in the pews and to build up the local parishes, and I think he's going to accomplish what he set out to do."

By focusing his pastoral letter on the Eucharist, Bishop Lynch has chosen to follow in the footsteps of other church leaders, such as Pope John Paul II, who wrote an encyclical on the Eucharist in 2003 and declared 2004-2005 to be the Year of the Eucharist, and also Pope Benedict XVI, who, earlier this year issued an apostolic exhortation on the Eucharist called "Sacrament of Charity."

"This is Bishop Lynch's chance to take on, as a teaching role, the theology of the Eucharist," said Doug Reatini, diocesan director for the office of worship, who added that the letter would inspire Catholics to become "a little more educated about the celebration of the Eucharist and what it calls us to, and it would help them to enter into the celebration more deeply and more prayerfully so that in the long run we become better Catholic Christians because of it."

It is rare that the bishop in the Diocese of St. Petersburg issues a pastoral letter, diocesan officials said. This will only be the third one in the history of the diocese.

But, based on one of the previous pastoral letters, the impact could be huge, said Brian Lemoi, director of the diocesan evangelization and lifelong faith formation office.

In 1987, then-Bishop W. Thomas Larkin issued a pastoral letter called Reflecting the Glory, which focused on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program and the sacraments that initiate Catholics into the church, such as baptism and confirmation, he said.

In learning more about pastoral letters, Lemoi said he "came to appreciate how much that (Bishop Larkin's pastoral letter) had in establishing the RCIA program in our diocese, and I have every expectation that will happen with Bishop Lynch's pastoral letter, as far as giving direction to our future catechetical efforts and policies in how we prepare people for the sacraments, we receive them into the Eucharistic community, and how it impacts our service and outreach to others because we (will) even at a more deeper level embrace the reality of the Eucharist."

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Bishop hopes to enlighten through letter

By focusing his pastoral letter on the Eucharist, Bishop Lynch has chosen to follow in the footsteps of other church leaders, such as Pope John Paul II.

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