Living the Truth in Love

Pope Francis has named a new bishop as shepherd and leader of the Diocese of Portland. It is a blessing! I am grateful for the appointment of Most Rev. James Thomas Ruggieri, a wonderful man and a great priest. He is now ordained and installed as bishop and is busy meeting the priests and people who make up this great diocese. May God bless him and the diocese with wisdom and understanding. 

For me, this moment is a bit difficult to describe. I am completing a time that has been important in my life. I have served as bishop of Portland for 10 years. Now it is time to move on to the next road the Lord opens for me. Yet I am not leaving Maine. It is a time of transition. What to call it?  I always tell the priests there is no such thing as retirement in the priesthood. The same is true for bishops. We are freed of the responsibility of administrative matters and the governance of a diocese, but we remain bishops and continue with the ministry that we began in priesthood. I will do that here in Maine. As I told you when I arrived, I saw the sign at the beginning of the Maine Turnpike: “Maine. Worth a visit, worth a lifetime.”  The “lifetime” was starting. In the end, I am staying because I like it here. I like the people and the beauty of the land and water. And I think I can give Bishop Ruggieri help when he needs it. Maine is a big state. It is hard to be in the County and Biddeford on the same day. With me around he can do that. 

Transition in life often means moving. It did for me. As I sorted through things in that process, I came across a folder with some things from the day of my priestly ordination. Included was the original handwritten text of the remarks I made at my ordination Mass on July 14, 1973.  Yes, when I was ordained, there were no personal computers. Those came some years later. 

What is striking in this discovery is that my words as a newly ordained priest are exactly the words that apply to today. I gave thanks to God for the grace of the priesthood, and I acknowledged the people whom God placed in my life who influenced my journey to priesthood. 

My sentiments today are the same.  I do give thanks to God for the opportunity to be your bishop. It has been a wonderful 10 years. Certainly, it has had its challenges. In particular, we still need to be mindful of the suffering of victim-survivors and the faithful of the diocese caused by clerical sexual abuse. Our best way forward is to be vigilant that we are doing what we can to keep people safe. The fact that we have not had a substantiated allegation of such abuse for 31 years would indicate that the measures we have taken are helpful. We continue our vigilance and our care for those who come to the diocese for assistance and healing. 

My time with you has also given me many graces. Maine may be considered a secular state but 20% of the population still defines itself as Catholic. And the life of those Catholics living their faith, gathering for Mass, supporting the activity of their parishes and Catholic Charities, bringing the young people for the sacraments, participating in faith sharing, praying together at adoration, visiting the hospitals, staffing the food pantries, and serving meals throughout the diocese is a work of God that I have been privileged to witness and to encourage.  Lay faithful, priests, religious women and men, deacons, seminarians, all participate in these good works, which are both spiritual works and acts of charity. They are the heart of the diocese and of the Church. They are the memories I treasure.

And, though I am grateful to all the faithful here in Maine for the way in which they live the faith, I reserve a particular word of thanks to my closest collaborators, our priests. I am so grateful for their dedication and their devotion to the good of the Church in Maine. 

Now we look forward. Our direction will come from the Scripture, and the words of my motto from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians give us a point of reference: “Living the truth in love.”  The Truth for us is Jesus Christ and His message.  We are in a time of Eucharistic Renewal. Our focus is on the Risen Christ present with us sacramentally in the bread and wine we consecrate at Mass. This is Jesus. His sacrifice on the cross of His very person has accomplished our salvation, our forgiveness, our reconciliation with a loving Father. Jesus has conquered the emptiness of death for all people who follow Him. We live in Him forever. We will share for all eternity in the life of the Risen Christ. In His grace, good will triumph over evil. As death is overcome by the Father’s love for Jesus, so too will evil fall before the truth of God’s love we see lived out in His life, death, and resurrection. That is the reason for our hope. And that is our truth. It is the gift of grace Christ gives us. 

I encourage you to continue to live in that hope and, with God’s grace alive in you, allow the Holy Spirit Christ has anointed us with baptism and confirmation to guide you in bringing His love into our world through the many activities, spiritual and charitable, that are the life of this great diocese. 

But most importantly, I hope that you will also keep both Bishop Ruggieri and me in your prayers, as we will you. We might pray that, together, we will live the vocations which God, in His goodness, has given each of us as a sign of his abundant love. We pray also that together we might be a people nourished by the very presence of Jesus, the Lord, and formed into the Church, which truly is “living the truth in love.” God is with us. Let us give thanks! 

God bless,

Bishop Robert Deeley, JCD
12th Bishop of Portland