Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Further Look At Soon to be America's Youngest Catholic Bishop - Fr José Arturo Cepeda (Plus Vids)

Whispers has a pretty good post on yesterdays Holy Week Monday surprise. See And Arturo Makes Three: For Hockeytown, an Auxiliary Hat-Trick

Whispers has a good bit of detail about the man and the overall situation. In the big scheme of things though Whispers points out:
As analysis goes, with Hispanics now a de facto majority among the nation's 68 million faithful and tipped to outnumber Anglos in the Lone Star State (where Catholics are still getting used to their new status as Texas' largest religious group) by late this decade, it's worth noting that Cepeda's ascent signals another hat-trick: he's the third Texas priest to be named a bishop in his early 40s in the last five years, alongside Flores and Cantú, each of whom were likewise the bench's youngest member on their respective arrival. The appointment equally reflects two signal trends of Stateside nods in B16's pontificate: for one, the pontiff's decided preference for bishops with significant experience in education and formation... but above all, the most-prized quality among US episcopabili these days: the "crossover" skills of linguistic and cultural fluency in Anglo and Hispanic communities alike, that the next generation of American bishops might successfully bridge the church's present and future on these shores.

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