‘Indianapolis is my home now’
One year later, Bishop Coyne celebrates the changes and blessings in his life
Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, apostolic administrator, blesses National Catholic Youth Conference and National Catholic Collegiate Conference participants on Nov. 19, 2011, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis at the end of the closing liturgy. He was the principal celebrant at the Mass and the host for the 31st biennial conference, which was sponsored by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry. The conference brought more than 23,000 youths and young adults to Indianapolis to celebrate their Catholic faith. (File photo by Mary Ann Garber)
By John Shaughnessy
(Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part interview with Bishop Christopher J. Coyne, apostolic administrator of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.)
As Bishop Christopher J. Coyne looks back on the dramatic changes in his life in the past year, one moment may surprise all the Indianapolis Colts fans who have unsuccessfully tried to change the football allegiance of a man who will passionately root for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI on Feb. 5.
The moment definitely caught Bishop Coyne’s mother off-guard.
It came at the end of a year marked by three major life events for him—his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI in January that led him from serving as a parish priest in the Boston area to becoming the first auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in 78 years, his ordination as a bishop in March and his appointment by the pope as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese following Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein’s early retirement in September because of health problems.
The moment happened when Bishop Coyne returned to his parents’ home in Massachusetts for the Christmas holiday.
“I kind of passed a milestone with them that my mom was a little bit unhappy with when I was there for Christmas vacation,” Bishop Coyne recalls. “At the end, she said, ‘What time do you fly out on Monday?’ I said, ‘I think my flight home is at three o’clock.’ She said, ‘What?! This is your home.’ I said, ‘Well, this is home, but Indianapolis is my home now.’ ”
While Colts’ fans will have to wait for his football conversion—he still proudly wears a Patriots’ hooded sweatshirt—Catholics in central and southern Indiana have already had a profound impact on his personal faith in the past year.
“What’s really been kind of a revelation for me is how many people say, ‘We’re praying for you,’ and they do,” Bishop Coyne noted. “I’ve noticed in my life over the past year changes in terms of the temptations in my life, the struggles in my life, the sins. You know, impatience, anger or judgmentalism. It’s been easier. It hasn’t gone away, but I’ve noticed I’m not as judgmental as I once was. I’m not as quick to anger.
“I don’t struggle with my humanity as much as I did. I’m not a saint, but I’ve felt more peaceful and more of the Lord. I really think that there’s been an effect on my life with all of those people praying for me. I really think I’m blessed and gifted by the Spirit because of all the prayers that are coming in my life. I still have a long way to go, but I’m humbled by that, and I’m thankful for all the support people give me.”
The change in his faith and the change of his sense of “home” are just two of the insights that Bishop Coyne shared in an interview with The Criterion about the defining moments and impressions of his first year as a bishop.
Here is an edited version of that interview.
Q. What runs through your mind as you look back on the past year?
A. “I can’t believe how fast the year has gone. I was ordained to be Archbishop Daniel’s assistant, the auxiliary. Because of Archbishop Daniel’s unfortunate illness and stroke, I very quickly had to take on a much greater role. But because of that, I’ve had the joy of celebrating the rites of election for hundreds of people who have become a Catholic. I also had the great joy of ordaining a deacon and a priest, celebrating the Holy Week Masses, and then the great celebration of the confirmation of adults and young people. It’s just been more than I could ever have dreamed of in my first year as an auxiliary bishop.”
Q. What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced?
A. “I’d have to say it’s all the Colts’ fans I run into all the time. I didn’t realize how much Colts’ fans really can’t stand the Patriots.
“On a more personal level, the biggest challenge has been being apart from family and friends. But I keep in touch with family every day in e-mails. And I talk to my parents at least three or four times a week.
“On a level of being a priest and being a bishop here in Indianapolis, the biggest challenge is just not having enough time to do what needs to be done. Also, there are times I have to let go of my schedule and realize I have to say no to certain things. Because if I say yes to this one thing, that means I’m not available on a much wider level to do the things a bishop has to do. It’s adjusting, as a bishop and the apostolic administrator, to being called to a larger flock and a much broader vision.”
Q. What has been the greatest blessing?
A. “The great blessing of the past 12 months is the people of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, by far. I’ve just been so welcomed by all of them, especially the priests and religious. They’ve all just been wonderful. I’ve really come to know almost all the priests by name. And wherever I go, when I get to parishes, people are just glad to see me. I haven’t caught a lot of conflict from anybody. They’re willing to have conversations.
“I think the Catholic community in central and southern Indiana is very, very healthy. Whoever the next archbishop is, he has a huge opportunity to evangelize and bring people to Catholicism. I think our Christian brothers and sisters that are out there are real uncharted territory in terms of inviting them to the Catholic faith.”
Q. What have you learned about the faith of Catholics in the archdiocese during your first year?
A. “What I find here among the Catholic people of Indiana is an intentional Catholicism. They’re not just Catholics by baptism. They truly try to live their Catholic faith. They’re committed to Sunday worship and their prayer, and they’re also committed to being witnesses to what it means to be Catholic.
“Many of them are people who raised their children according to the teachings of the Catholic Church, who desire to send their children to Catholic schools, who support Catholic schools, support their parishes and support the values that are presented to them. They also stand very much within the tradition of the Church and the Church’s teachings on morality, ethics, the value of life, and the care of all life from the womb to death. I also think people here are very generous to those in need in a way that moves out of their Catholicism.”
Q. What are some of the moments from your first year as bishop that stand out to you?
A. “After my ordination, I’d have to say the chrism Mass celebration with all the priests, deacons, parish life coordinators and all the people who were there [at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis]. And being there with my brother priests as we renewed our priestly vows and committed ourselves to service to God’s people.
“The two ordinations [of a priest and deacon] were just truly profound moments for me. I never thought that I would be in a place where I would be ordaining men for service to God’s Church. It was very, very humbling to do that. In my own brokenness—I’m as human as anyone—I was calling God down, by the laying on of hands, to ordain these men to the ministry of the Church.
“There have been a few priests’ funerals. Thank God, there have only been a few. But the times when I’ve laid my brother priests to rest in the midst of their family and friends, I’ve been honored to do so—to respect all they were as priests, and to hand them off to God.
“I’ve also had a lot of fun moments. Giving the invocation at the Indy 500. I’d never even been to any kind of car race in my life, and here I am on a Sunday morning, on top of a tower, in front of 200,000 people. Also, getting down to the Jennings County Fair, and eating a deep-fried Twinkie. I had never had that before in my life.
“And the National Catholic Youth Conference was surely one of the highlights of the year by far.”
Q. The National Catholic Youth Conference was in Indianapolis on Nov. 17-19. How did that event deepen your efforts to connect with youths and young adults?
A. “It really was an excellent opportunity to meet all those teens, 23,000 of them, and to interact with them over the course of three days—to have a lot of fun with them and talk with them. It was inspiring to see the young people come together, and be supported and validated in their belief. They found kids who are just like them, who believe like them—and then to have them all come together and be strengthened. My hope is that they then went back and did some really good things within their own communities and parishes.”
Q. What hope do they give you for the future of the Church?
A. “It strengthens the hope I already have. When I look at the great work of the Church, I always say, ‘The work of the Church is local.’ It’s doing the right thing at that moment for the right reasons. It’s brick by brick. We think on a global level, but really in terms of building up the Church, you build it one brick at a time. And that’s one relationship with Christ at a time, one relationship with other people at a time.
“And so you see the 23,000 kids that were there, and you try to influence them by a good celebration of the Mass and a good homily, and then hope they’ll go out and spread the Good News. All you’re doing is planting seeds, letting seeds fall where they will and letting the grain come up as it will.”
Q. After being here a year, how do you view the state of the archdiocese?
A. “The state of the archdiocese is in fine shape. We still have some work to do. We always have to be careful about our finances, and also supporting our parishes and our priests. But Archbishop Daniel, for the 19 years that he was here, did phenomenal work in terms of strengthening the archdiocese, and developing and working with others to put in place an incredible Catholic school system.
“The next archbishop has a real opportunity to build upon the good things that are here. He doesn’t have to fix anything. And that’s a good thing. He has a lot of people of good will. Financially, we’re in pretty good shape. And spiritually, we’re in really good shape.”
Q. It seems that your hope for the future is that you want to continue to serve in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
A. “I don’t want to go anywhere else. I love being here. I couldn’t ask for a better assignment. The archdiocese and Indiana itself are both great. The people are wonderful and friendly. If this is where I am for the rest of my priesthood and the rest of my time as a bishop, I’ll be a happy man.” †
Click here to read the second part of The Criterion interview with Bishop Coyne
