A bishop 'must truly journey with God's flock,' San Diego cardinal tells new auxiliaries

SAN DIEGO (OSV News) -- Cardinal Robert W. McElroy of San Diego urged the Southern California diocese's two new auxiliary bishops to "become prophets of the synodal church that is dawning and the renewal to which we have been called."

"As the heirs of Abraham, you must proclaim that we are all on a journey in this earthly pilgrimage, and that we must never become so attached to the places where we are most comfortable that we fail to see God's call to change," the cardinal said in his homily during the episcopal ordination Mass for Auxiliary Bishops Michael M. Pham and Felipe Pulido at St. Therese of Carmel Church Sept. 28. The two new auxiliaries join current San Diego Auxiliary Bishop Ramón Bejarano.

Cardinal McElroy was the principal ordaining bishop. The principal co-ordaining bishops were Bishop Joseph J. Tyson of Yakima, Washington, and Bishop John P. Dolan of Phoenix, a former auxiliary of San Diego (2017-2022). Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and Bishop Bejarano were among the concelebrants of the ordination Mass.

"As heirs of the disciples who heard the call to accompaniment from Jesus as he stood on the seashore, you must work to place the 'kerygma' at the very center of the preaching and teaching of the church," Cardinal McElroy told the bishops in his homily.

He said they also must "reflect the pastoral embrace of Christ to all of God's people: in their moments of grace and heroism, in their moments of sinfulness and failure, and in their moments of deepest searching for the Lord's presence."

Pope Francis appointed then-Father Pham, vicar general of the Diocese of San Diego, and then-Father Pulido, vicar for clergy and director of vocations for the Diocese of Yakima, Washington, as auxiliary bishops for San Diego June 6.

"You are called to be bishops at this pivotal synodal moment in the life of the church," Cardinal McElroy said, referring to the Oct. 4-29 Synod on Synodality at the Vatican. "The whole of the Catholic community throughout the world is being called to a fundamental renewal. We are called to deepen our communion with one another, to broaden participation in the life of the church, and to reclaim and reimagine that same mission which Christ gave to the disciples when he walked the earth."

Cardinal McElroy traced the journey of the two new bishops from their native countries to the priesthood and now to their new role of serving the church as bishops. Bishop Pham, 56, was born in Da Nang, Vietnam, and Bishop Pulido, 53, was born in Dos Aguas in Mexico's Michoacan state.

For both men, "accompaniment was at the root of your priestly vocation," Cardinal McElroy said.

"For you, Felipe, the initial call of Christ to the ordained priesthood came early in life, in Mexico. But the Lord's call to you came with overwhelming force many years later, when your pastor in Yakima asked you to help care for Father Jerry Corrigan, a priest of Yakima, who was dying in the parish," the cardinal said. "It was in walking with Father Corrigan in his illness, in accompanying him in the darkest moment of his life, and in seeing the witness and service of his priesthood, that when he invited you to become a priest yourself, you experienced Christ the Lord coming to you on the seashore, calling you to a life of service and sacrifice."

"Truly," he added, "your very priestly vocation arose from a generous and sustained act of accompaniment and compassion."

"Michael, Jesus beckoned to you for many years, but it was only after college, when you were working as an aeronautical engineer, that the Lord's invitation crystalized," Cardinal McElroy said to Bishop Pham. "For you, as for Felipe, your vocation crystalized through an act of accompaniment. Despite a full-time job and being enrolled in a master's degree program in engineering, you spent your weekends as a catechist with the Vietnamese community at Good Shepherd Parish, walking with young people through their journeys of faith and questioning."

"In these moments," he continued, "you realized you had the capacity to teach the Word, to form hearts, to lead women and men to the Eucharist. And it was in these moments also that you heard the Lord coming to you on the seashore and inviting you with overwhelming grace to enter into the priesthood."

As bishops, "you take on new dimensions of Christ's call to the disciples," Cardinal McElroy said. "For as successors to the Apostles, you are called to place at the center of your ministry the three apostolic mandates: to preach the Word of God in its fullness and truth; to help sanctify the people of God through the sacramental life and the call to holiness; and to govern the community of faith, so that it might fulfill its mission in the life of the world."

But, he emphasized, "these new responsibilities cannot lessen in any way the devotion to accompaniment which has characterized your priesthood."

"The call to episcopal service must deepen your efforts to walk with men and women in the sufferings and the joys of their actual lives; to embrace the fallen, the marginalized, the angry, the questioning; to bring the authentic healing amidst polarization that can only come through embracing those with whom we disagree," Cardinal McElroy said.

"To be a good bishop," he added, "you must truly journey with God's flock as Pope Francis has urged us: walking sometimes at the front to lead; walking sometimes in the middle of the flock to experience the realities of daily life; and walking sometimes at the rear to embrace and walk with those who are struggling to keep up."