Six U.S. Catholic bishops and archbishops shared with the Register some of the saints they turn to for help and inspiration — the saints who shepherd our shepherds.
Bishop Earl K. Fernandes
“I’m inspired by the missionary zeal of St. Francis Xavier,” Bishop Earl Fernandes of the Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, told the Register. “He evangelized in Goa, on the southwest coast of India, where my family is originally from. He inspires me to be a missionary.”
St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the “Little Flower,” patroness of the missions, is another favorite. He recently led a pilgrimage to France to visit the Chapel of the Visitation in Paray-le-Monial, where Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, revealing his Sacred Heart. During the trip, they also visited the Carmel monastery where St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus was a nun.
“I love her ‘Little Way’ and her vocation to love,” Bishop Fernandes said. “Recently in a Eucharistic procession around a prison [25 prisoners participated following Mass], one person, sentenced to 20 years after a second offense, gave his testimony. He had looked into the clouds and saw a nun holding a flower. He googled ‘nun’ and ‘flower’ and began to read about St. Thérèse and discovered her Little Way. She has these constant miracles.”
Some of the other saints he named include St. John Vianney, who inspired him to become a priest, and Sts. Vincent de Paul, Bernadette and Francis de Sales. “They show me the way and inspire me to do better.”
Bishop John Dolan
As a boy, Bishop John Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix was fascinated by St. Padre Pio, who had the stigmata. It attracted him to want to “evangelize about God, who works miracles.”
In parishes named for saints where he has served, he always wanted to do a “deep dive” getting to know them, including visiting the home of St. Rose of Lima in Peru. “I was impressed by her singular devotion to the Lord,” Bishop Dolan said. “She struggled to want to spend all her time with God and only with God, finding it quite a disruption as people came to visit her wanting to talk about God. She really wanted just to talk with God.”
Another favorite of his is Blessed Fra Angelico, a Renaissance Dominican painter beatified by Pope St. John Paul II, who declared him the patron saint of artists. “He would literally weep as he was painting the Crucifixion,” Bishop Dolan explained. “His ability to employ new techniques and put a theological spin on them paved the way for artists and theologians.”
Regarding the saints, the bishop said, “We often forget there’s this whole heavenly realm that we will one day be a part, but we are in communion with them now, especially in the Eucharist. The power of the saints can be celebrated here and now.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley
Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City shared that Blessed Stanley Rother has become very dear to him. Father Rother, a native of Okarche, Oklahoma, was martyred while serving at the local Church’s mission in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. He was the first martyr from the United States and the first U.S.-born priest to be beatified (2017).
“I’ve been involved in advancing his cause [for canonization],” Archbishop Coakley explained. “I first learned of him while I was a seminarian. Everyone was talking about this missionary who got killed in Guatemala. I read everything I could about him.”
The archbishop’s predecessor, Archbishop Eusebius Beltran, had opened Father Rother’s cause for canonization. “When I got the call that I was appointed the archbishop of Oklahoma City, I made a visit to his [Rother’s] hometown and home parish to lay my episcopal ministry in Oklahoma before him,” Archbishop Coakley recounted.
Although the Oklahoma City Archdiocese no longer sends priests there, it continues to support the parish financially. “For 400 years, there were no vocations,” Archbishop Coakley noted, “and, suddenly, there’s been a spate of priests, 15 to 16 priests ordained there.”
One of the things that makes Blessed Stanley a favorite of visiting seminarians, according to Archbishop Coakley, is that Father Rother was invited to leave the seminary because he could not pass Latin, which was required then in the late 1950s. “The director said, ‘Maybe you have another vocation,’” he explained. “But Rother felt pretty sure God was calling him to be a priest. He found another seminary — St. Mary’s in Emmitsburg — and flourished and was ordained in 1963.”
“Rother was a living example of a life of priestly ministry and holiness well lived,” Archbishop Coakley said. “One of the things Blessed Rother wrote in a 1980 letter to his flock back home was that ‘the shepherd cannot run at the first sign of danger.’ He’s such a powerful example to all of us to find the courage to live out our call to holiness, even though it won’t be easy.”
Other favorites include Pope St. John Paul II and St. Teresa of Calcutta, both of whom he met.
“I love talking about the saints,” he said. “We need their witness and examples.”
Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone
“It’s hard to pick a favorite; they are all so wonderful,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said.
He started with St. Joseph. “He’s a strong father figure, and we need strong fathers now. So many problems could be solved with strong fathers.”
Among his favorites are saints who lived alongside the poor, such St. Junípero Serra, who left Spain to serve the Indigenous people in North America, establishing eight missions in California. “The more I learn about him, the more I learn about the great sacrifices he made.”
He also named St. Peter Claver: “He tended to the Africans in the slave trade, living in poverty with them. He provided for their physical needs, nursing them back to health, loving and caring for them, and then taught them the faith.”
Archbishop Cordileone has visited the island in Hawaii where St. Damian of Molokai served the leper colony for 16 years and ended up also contracting the disease. “Back in his time [in the late 1800s], they were completely cut off from the world,” Archbishop Cordileone explained. “Ships would throw them overboard and they had to swim or walk to the land. He lived in solidarity with the people.”
“And I cannot fail to mention St. Francis of Assisi, being here in San Francisco — another one who became poor for the poor,” he added. “St. Francis had a huge effect on the renewal of the Church when it was so much needed. And St. Teresa of Calcutta: We are so blessed to have her sisters right here in San Francisco.
“There are so many other examples,” he added, “such as those who suffered under severe circumstances, including those who stood against totalitarian regimes in the 20th century.”
Bishop David Kagan
St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thomas Aquinas are two favorites of Bishop David Kagan of the Bismarck Diocese in North Dakota. “It’s not just the historical things they accomplished, but they had a deep spiritual life that really sustained them in everything they did,” he explained. “Although neither lived to be very old, not only did they both accomplish great good for the Church, but they also had a tremendous devotion to the Eucharist. Being in the Presence of the Holy Eucharist seemed to sustain them.”
Bishop Kagan also mentioned St. Dismas: “If ever there was a reason for any of us to have hope, in the span of a minute, because he recognized Jesus on the cross, he received sainthood by looking to Jesus and submitting to him and asking for his mercy.”
Bishop Kagan pointed out that saints offer tremendous support for all of us on earth by praying for us.
“Even in the Eucharistic Prayers,” he said, “we pray to those who have died and gone before us in faith and are gazing on the face of God — that’s heaven. It’s not that I’m not honoring or glorifying God when I ask a saint to pray for me, it’s just the opposite. God is honored whenever we ask a saint for prayers because he is their Creator.”
Bishop John Folda
The other bishop in North Dakota is Bishop John Folda of the Fargo Diocese, whose favorite saints include St. John the Evangelist and St. Peter. Of the latter, he said: “Even with his denial of Our Lord, he came back from that to show the greatness that we know. I love that image of him reaching out to Jesus, walking on the water, sinking — but he cries out.”
When Bishop Folda was discerning a call to the priesthood, he developed a devotion to St. Charles Borromeo, the patron saint of bishops, cardinals and seminarians. “It was his feast day when I decided to go to the seminary, on Nov. 4, 1982,” he said. That following September, he was sent to St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Pennsylvania.
While in Rome, Bishop Folda felt a closeness to Sts. Peter, Paul, Gregory the Great and John Paul II. “I have sensed their spiritual closeness in the course of my life in the priesthood and as a bishop,” Bishop Folda said. “It’s a comfort to know there is a companionship and that they are kindred spirits rooting for me.” He pointed out that amid his devotions to the saints is also a special love for the Blessed Mother, Queen of All Saints.
Bishop Folda explained that the saints can help us with our daily spiritual battles.
“The evil one wants to prevent us from entering into eternal life with God,” he said. “Our Lord has won the battle; we just need to align ourselves with him. The saints lead the way.”
