Thanks be to God!! We have been recently given word of our new Bishop-elect: Fr. William Francis Medley. Fr. Medley is from Marion County, KY and succeeds Rev. John J. McRaith to become the fourth Bishop of the Owensboro Diocese. Fr. Medley has an extensive history of service to God in our general area, and specifically the Archdiocese of Louisville, KY. As providence has it, in 1993 he became the residing priest at St. Joseph's Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown, KY (the original See of the Archdiocese of Louisville). In fact, it was during his tenure at St. Joseph's that the Proto-Cathedral was designated a Minor Basilica. Why am I mentioning this instead of his long list of other accomplishments? Well, no doubt the list is impressive, and worth mentioning...but I mention this to give the readers of this blog a little history lesson. We often loose ourselves within the "Protestant" culture we find ourselves....so every bit of connection with our ancient faith helps.
You see, the first Catholic missionaries arrived in this area in the late 18th century. Following, in 1808, Bishop Carroll of the diocese of Baltimore petitioned Rome for additional dioceses...those granted were Boston, New York, Philadelphia and..........yep....little ole Bardstown Kentucky. The first Bishop of Bardstown, Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, arrived three years later in 1811 after traveling down the Ohio River by flatboat and on wagon from Louisville, and had a diocese that covered almost the entire Northwest Territory; as far south as New Orleans and as far north as Detroit. Bishop Flaget commissioned the building of St. Joseph's Cathedral, the first Cathedral West of the Allegheny Mountains, hence the term Proto- (first) Cathedral. The cornerstone (which can still be viewed today) was laid in 1816, and the building was sufficiently complete to hold mass and be consecrated by 1819. Fast forward to 1993 and Fr. Medley was installed as priest of St. Joseph's, and in 2001 our beloved John Paul II elevated the Cathedral to the title of Minor Basilica and the Cathedral received it's umbraculum.
It seems fitting, that after almost a year of vacancy in the chair of the Bishop of Owensboro, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has seen it fitting to install one of our own into the office of Bishop for our diocese, and continue the history started in this "holy land" of the Church in America. This installation can often prove to be a rare experience in one's own diocese. We would do well to turn our prayers towards Bishop-elect Medley's needs and petitions, and ask God our Father for health and strength, wisdom and courage for our new bishop.
May God bless him and keep him, and all of us in the Owensboro diocese, and all His Church.
Pax Christi.
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