Role of cathedral is focus of Bishop's Dinner keynote

Courtesy photo

Photo 1 of 2

The Most Rev. Blase Joseph Cupich, Bishop of Spokane

SALT LAKE CITY — The Most Rev. Blase Joseph Cupich, Bishop of Spokane, will be the keynote speaker for the Bishop’s Dinner Sept. 23, at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. The fundraiser dinner is held for the preservation of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, the mother church of the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

In his keynote address, Bishop Cupich will talk about the role of the cathedral in the bishop’s ministry and where cathedral comes from as a reference point to give insight on how the bishop shepherds his people.

"The bishop shepherds his people from a position in which he is able to look at the pastoral needs of the people he serves, and from that position he is able to hold up the many gifts, talents and challenges that people face and articulates and speaks about them," Bishop Cupich said. "I want to use the image of the bishop’s chair to unpack an understanding of the bishop’s unique ministry in the life of the church as the one who presides over the diocese from that chair."

Within the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Bishop Cupich currently serves as Chair of the Bishops’ Committee on the Protection for Children and Young People and is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee on Scripture Translation. He is also a member of the Committee on the Collection for Eastern Europe. He was installed as the sixth bishop of Spokane on Sept. 3, 2010. Prior to that he was installed the seventh bishop of Rapid City, S.D. on Sept. 21, 1998.

Bishop Cupich also served on the USCCB Committee on the Liturgy, the Liturgy Task Force on Liturgy with Children, the Ad Hoc Committee on Scripture Translation, chairman of the Committee on Vocations and the Ad Hoc Committee on Sexual Abuse. He chaired the USCCB’s Vocations Committee and served as the Episcopal Advisor of the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership Project, and was asked by the Bishop’s Conference to become involved in the summit in Orlando, Fla., in April 2008.

"I did so because I was asked to help think through some of the theological points that underpin a valid understanding of lay ecclesial ministry and I have outlined the principles in the remarks that I gave. What I think is important for people to understand is that lay ecclesial ministry is an opportunity for the laity to collaborate, as the document "Co-workers in the Vineyard," so well put, with the bishop in making his ministry much more effective and in that way using the gifts and talents of people for building up the life of the Church." The talks can be found at www.emergingmodels.org.

Bishop Cupich, a native of Omaha, was a priest of the Omaha Archdiocese, ordained Aug. 16, 1975. Within the archdiocesan curia of Omaha, he served as director of the Office for Divine Worship and as chairman of the Commission on Youth from 1978 to 1981. He completed his graduate studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Cupich obtained his licentiate (1979) and later doctorate of Sacred Theology (1987) in Sacramental Theology. From 1980 to 1981, he was an instructor of the Continuing Education of Priests Program and Diaconate Formation at Creighton University in Omaha. He then served as secretary of the nunciature to the United States until 1987. He was pastor of St. Mary Church in Bellevue from 1987 to 1989, President-Rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, from 1989 to 1996, and pastor of St. Robert Bellarmine Church in Omaha from 1997 to 1998.