Catholics in Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin and Berkshire Counties are getting a new bishop Tuesday. Mitchell Rozanski of Baltimore takes over from retiring Bishop Timothy McDonnell.
ARCHIVE: Mitchell Thomas Rozanski Named New Bishop Of Western Mass. Catholic Diocese
This is a hectic time for the diocese, as it readies for Tuesday’s installation mass, its first in ten years.
“The installation of a new bishop is certainly the largest and the most festive event that a diocese can look forward to,” says Monsignor Christopher Connelly.
Connelly is rector of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Springfield and the chair of the installation committee. He says the prep work started, like most big parties, with deciding who to invite.
“We have about a 900 seat cathedral and our diocese is about 220,000 Catholics, so unfortunately we can’t fit them all,” he says.
Beyond that, they had to print the programs and spruce up the cathedral grounds and interior, including a new coat of arms over the bishop’s chair.
“One of the most striking things and changes, you might say, in the interior of the church is over the bishop’s chair, which is the seat – literally – of his authority, is a new coat of arms,” Connelly says. “And the motto is quiet beautiful. It’s taken from the 100th psalm in the old testament, and it is ‘Serve the Lord with gladness.'”
After the mass Tuesday afternoon, Rozanski will head to the grounds of the Big E in West Springfield to greet parishioners.