 |
|
| Bishop Donald J. Hying leaves the Vespers service. (Catholic Herald Milwaukee photo/Juan C. Medina) |
MILWAUKEE — She made regular visits home to Menomonee Falls from her convent once every six months, but there’s one visit that Sister of St. Benedict Center Margaret Mary Baravella will never forget.
“This young priest hustled down the aisle one day . . . and said, ‘Hi, I’m Fr. Don. Who are you and where are you from?’” said Sr. Margaret Mary, who attended the Wednesday afternoon ordination Mass with Sister of St. Benedict Center Cecilia Cannon and their mutual friend Hester Lewis. “We became fast friends at that moment.”
After that encounter at St. Anthony Parish, Sr. Margaret Mary said she continued to pray for him.
“I prayed for him for all the time that he was away at the missions and really kept my ear to the ground to when he would return,” Sr. Margaret Mary said. “He was surprised. I said to him, ‘I prayed for you always,’ and he said, ‘I can’t believe you remembered me.’ I said, ‘I would not forget you, Father. You are special.’”
“You told us about him, too,” Sr. Cecilia piped in.
“Oh, I did . . .” Sr. Margaret Mary said. “All I can say is God’s got wonderful designs for him, I mean, exceptional designs for him, and he will live up to every single one of them — and I’m just going to cry,” she said with tears filling her eyes. “I just wanted to sob through the entire thing, because I know God has wonderful things in store for him.”
| Read about Bishop Hying’s episcopal ordination here. | |
Touches lives
While Sr. Margaret Mary hopes that Bishop Hying becomes a saint someday, she knows he will touch lives as a bishop.
“He’ll make anyone’s life that he touches better and so long as he’s in this diocese, or any diocese which he ever serves, he will make a huge impact on the sanctity of the people,” she said.
When Sr. Cecilia saw Bishop Hying before his ordination Wednesday morning, and called him “Father,” she reminded him that she only had a short while longer to use that title. “He said, ‘No sister, I’ll always be father,’” she said with a smile.
Sr. Cecilia said that the three of them knew Fr. Hying would one day be Bishop Hying.
“There’s an old saying among priests that they will look at another priest and say ‘He is Episcopal timber,’ and I used to hear this, and I said, ‘What does that mean?’ They said, ‘We think this one might become a bishop.’ And so when we met him, I said to myself, ‘That’s Episcopal timber.’” Sr. Cecilia said. “He is so kind and so generous with his time — he’s very dear.”
“We have been blessed to be a part of seeing a saint in the making, and when we get to heaven, we’ll recognize him and remember this day,” said Lewis, a retired doctor of child psychiatry.
Becoming a saint would be the next step, according to Lewis. “I mean and it’s the whole process from the time he ran down the aisle and said, ‘Who are you?’ so this is just part of the pathway,” she said.
Family remembers bishop
Giovanna O’Donahue and her husband, Jon, parishioners at St. Francis Xavier in the Green Bay Diocese, attended the ordination because of the friendship they built with the newly ordained auxiliary bishop when they were parishioners at Our Lady of Good Hope Parish, Milwaukee, about eight years ago.
They’ve continued to keep in touch with the man who used to dance and have water gun fights in the backyard with their children.
“He’s great with the kids,” Giovanna said of their seven-year-old daughter, Margaret, and sons, Thomas, four, and Daniel, two.
Giovanna, who is pregnant with their fourth child, was overwhelmed with emotion during the ordination.
“It was just so different to see him with the miter on,” She said. “It’s a little overwhelming, and that’s when I kind of emotionally felt like ‘Oh, my gosh, it’s not Fr. Don anymore, it’s your excellency.’”
“I think anybody who knows him, knows him well, knows that eventually this was probably in his future,” Jon added. “He’s very pastoral in how he takes care of his – when he’s down at the parishes, and we know some people that are down in the seminary that had a wonderful experience with him, too, so this probably isn’t his last stop, but he would never admit that because he’s probably the most humble person you could ever possibly meet.”
Parish members attend ordination
Judy Braam, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Parish in Saukville, attended the ordination with her husband, Urban, who’s a parish council representative. “They gave us an invitation and we weren’t going to let that go,” said Judy, who thought the crowd was wonderful despite the heat. “We wanted to come very badly and we’re so happy that we did. It’s a wonderful, beautiful celebration.”
“I think it’s wonderful,” said Urban, who looks forward to working with the new bishop because of his involvement in the parish council and the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Braam looked forward to meeting the new auxiliary bishop whose comments about being a servant, at the end of the ordination, she found memorable.
“That he is our servant – he’s not just for Fr. (Archbishop Jerome E.) Listecki, but for everybody, everyone.” Braam said. “We’re all together, we’re all the same. We’re one with each other. That’s what the Church is all about, it’s one with each other.”
She also likes his “Love never fails” motto. “That’s right,” she said. “If you do love, it never fails — we’ll always win.”
Braam’s biggest hope for Milwaukee’s new auxiliary bishop is that he follows what he says he’s going to do, and that he’ll himself visible in the parishes. “Hopefully he will visit the parishes and let us see him and speak with him, and all that wonderful stuff that goes with his duty,” she laughed.
A blessing
Vue Yang, parishioner and parish council member at St. Peter Claver Parish in Sheboygan, said attending Bishop Hying’s ordination Mass was a blessing. Yang conquered two firsts by attending: He experienced an ordination, and had the chance to meet the new bishop whom he described as “very open” and “human,” from what he observed during the ordination.
“He’s a person – he’s a very human person with everybody,” said Yang, who was one of the first to leave the church from his seat in the back rows.
Yang didn’t know Bishop Hying before he was named bishop, but he hopes that will change.
“I hope he will be with people and bring blessings to a lot of people . . .” he said. “I hope that he will visit everybody, every church and get to know people so we know who our Bishop Hying is.”
Family ties
Tammy Dotson, Bishop Hying’s second cousin, waited in the reception line outside the cathedral to greet her cousin, along with her 10-year-old daughter, Emily, her friend Robert Davis, and her aunt, Janice Kilby, Bishop Hying’s first cousin.
“It’s just wonderful,” said Dotson, a parishioner at St. Mary Parish in the La Crosse Diocese. “He’s a wonderful person, he’s a wonderful priest and we’re just thrilled, so very happy and very proud, as his parents would be also.”
The most memorable moment of the ordination for Dotson was when Bishop Hying mentioned his family. “When he mentioned his family, his parents being up there – they were very, very religious and they would have been here by his side without a doubt,” she said of Bishop Hying who concelebrated Emily’s first Holy Communion Mass with the parish priest and gave her daughter Communion.
“It was a very moving moment for us then just as this is a moving moment for us now,” said Dotson, who’s exactly 10 years younger than the bishop with whom she shares a birthday.
Kilby, a parishioner at St. Dennis Parish in the Madison Diocese, said the cousin she remembers playing with as a child on her grandparents’ farm, also concelebrates funeral Masses for their families.
“When the aunts or uncles pass away, he comes and concelebrates the Mass for them as well, so that’s just a really, very touching thing that he does,” Kilby said. “It means a lot to the family.”
Now that the ordination’s over and Bishop Hying’s officially auxiliary of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, Dotson has high hopes for her cousin.
“As a bishop I know he will bring more people into the Church, and I hope that he will continue to succeed in the Catholic Church as I’m sure others are hoping so as well, and I hope he gets more trips with his family — we would all like to go to Rome Fr. Don,” she laughed.
As Dotson neared the front of the line, she added one last comment for the bishop:
“I would say many congratulations, continued success and may God bless every day that the sun shines on your face.”