Photo by James A. McBride
Bishop Dennis Sullivan meets with print and broadcast journalists at the St. Pius X Spiritual Life Center, Blackwood, on Feb. 11.
When he heard “Breaking news from the Vatican” on the radio, Bishop Dennis Sullivan joked with reporters, he thought, “Maybe they’re taking back my appointment.”
The news, of course, was Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation, and it broke Feb. 11 as the Diocese of Camden was preparing for its own change of pastoral leadership. The next day Bishop Sullivan was to take his place as Camden’s eighth bishop during an installation Mass at St. Agnes Church in Blackwood.
Only hours after the pope’s stunning announcement, Bishop Sullivan met with local print and broadcast journalists at St. Pius X Spiritual Life Center in Blackwood. He spent about a half hour in relaxed conversation about the pope relinquishing his position and about his own role as he prepares take over as the spiritual leader of South Jersey’s 475,000 Catholics. As the English-speaking reporters left to file their reports, the bishop granted an interview in fluent Spanish to a Hispanic news organization.
Pope Benedict made a courageous and unselfish decision, Bishop Sullivan said. He also noted that the news took the world by surprise. “It seems that nobody knew, which is great that a secret can be kept,” the bishop said. “I think that’s marvelous.”
As the conversation turned to his own appointment, Bishop Sullivan summed up his immediate plans in three words: “listen, listen, listen.”
“My plan is to listen, to visit every single parish in the diocese. I’m delighted that I have some confirmations scheduled,” he said. “I will talk with every priest, and as many of the deacons as I can speak with, and get to know the significant leadership in the diocese, and get out into the parishes and speak to the people because that is where the church is.
“That is my plan, to listen, listen, listen. To listen with my heart, listen with my head,” he said. “I’m sure at the end of that, I will be able to put together some kind of a narrative of where I think the church here in Camden needs to go, what direction I think it needs to take, because I couldn’t tell you that now.”
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