EIGHT YEARS AGO: Bishop Larry Silva and Auxiliary Bishop Thomas A. Daly of San Jose, Calif., walk in procession after concelebrating Mass with bishops from California, Nevada, Hawaii and Utah at the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome April 20, 2012, during their last “ad limina” visits to report to the pope and Vatican officials. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Bishop Silva is headed for Rome to see the pope, meet with officials and pray at the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Bishop Larry Silva has his ticket for Rome. He departs Friday, Jan. 17, and arrives Sunday, Jan 19. A week later he will join 32 of his brother bishops from California and Nevada on their “ad limina” pilgrimage to the Eternal City, Jan. 26-Feb. 1.
The bishops will meet with Pope Francis on Jan. 27, report to various Vatican offices and departments, pray at the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul, celebrate the Eucharist at the major basilicas across the city, and enjoy some good Italian food.
The U.S. bishops’ visits “ad limina apostolorum” — to the threshold of the apostles — began Nov. 4 with a group from New England.
Fifteen groups of U.S. bishops are making the trip because the U.S. Catholic Church is divided into 15 regions. The Diocese of Honolulu belongs to region 11.
Bishop Silva, 12 time zones from his destination, has the farthest to travel. Accompanying him will be vicar general Msgr. Gary Secor.
The bishop told the Hawaii Catholic Herald by email Dec. 29 that he is looking forward to visiting Rome — “one of my favorite cities.”
He is leaving a week early to take a short vacation and to see friends who live in Rome. He will meet with an American priest who works in the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to discuss the “possibility of introducing the sainthood cause of (Kalaupapa volunteer) Joseph Dutton sometime in the near future.”
He and Msgr. Secor will also make a short train trip to the town of Spoleto to visit the Marchesa Kapiolani Marignoli, a supporter of the Cathedral Renewal Project who lives part-time in Honolulu and part-time in Italy.
Bishop Silva is looking forward to his group meeting with the pope. He said that bishops on earlier ad liminas have told him that they were “very impressed with the dialogue they had with Pope Francis — a free and open exchange about our local churches and how they fit into the universal church.”
“I think I would like to ask him about evangelization and effective means for accomplishing it,” he said.
The bishops, as a group, will be reporting to several central Vatican departments (dicasteries) and Bishop Silva has volunteered to give the introduction at the meeting with the Congregation for Clergy.
“I would like to pose some questions about the health of priests, growth in celibacy, and perhaps permanent deacons who are widowed and desire to remarry,” he said.
Bishop Silva will be the principal celebrant and homilist at the bishops’ Mass at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome.
Unique opportunity
“It will bring back memories of celebrating there the day after St. Damien’s canonization,” he said.
“Of course, in addition to the official visits I look forward to spending time with my brother bishops of the region — enjoying good Italian food, wine and gelato together,” the bishop said.
“The ad limina is a unique opportunity to connect the local dioceses with the universal church in the city whose bishop is the successor of St. Peter,” Bishop Silva said.
The preparation of the quinquennial reports and the hourlong meetings at various offices of the Roman Curia can give the visits the appearance of a business meeting.
But, as the “Directory for the ‘Ad Limina’ Visit” makes clear, the bishops’ visits are a pilgrimage with “a very definite purpose: that is, the strengthening of their own responsibility as successors of the Apostles and of their hierarchical communion with the Successor of Peter. The point of reference is a visit to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul, pastors and pillars of the Roman church.”
And, in fact, at the heart of the bishops’ pilgrimage are Masses at the Rome basilicas of St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major.
For many bishops, the highlight is the meeting with the pope, but over the past 35 years, those meetings have changed significantly because of the increased number of bishops in the world.
Canon law calls for the visits to occur every five years. That hasn’t happened since early in the pontificate of St. John Paul II.
The U.S. bishops’ last ad limina visits were eight years ago — in 2011-12.
According to the latest statistics released by the Vatican, there are now 3,017 dioceses, prelatures and vicariates around the world. When St. John Paul II was elected in 1978 there were 2,423.
St. John Paul would meet privately with each and every head of a diocese during the ad limina visits; he would invite groups of them to his morning Mass; and he would give a speech to each group.
Midway through his pontificate, Pope Benedict adopted a modified format, meeting with 7-10 bishops at a time instead of having individual encounters. He also cut down on the number of speeches he gave — for example, giving formal addresses to only five of the 15 groups of U.S. bishops in 2011-12.
The format changes have continued under Pope Francis. His regular practice now is to meet each group together — with sometimes 20 bishops sitting in a circle in the papal library — devoting between 90 minutes and two hours to a free-wheeling discussion.
According to bishops who have made their ad limina visits in the last year, Pope Francis tells the bishops they are free to comment about or ask him anything. Then, using a soccer metaphor, he tells them the ball is in play and whoever wants to kick things off can.
Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service contributed to this story.
