Early Good News on the New Bishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau

For those reading this out-of-town, Springfield-Cape Girardeau Diocese covers the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the State of Missouri, geographically speaking. With some pockets of Catholics, particularly in the Southeast, this Diocese covers a large portion of Assembly of God and Baptist territory. There are two co-cathedrals, one in Springfield in the West and one in Cape Girardeau in the East. They are hours apart by car.

The Diocesan website states that there are about 63,000 Catholics in the Diocese. For comparison, here in St. Louis there are about 63,000 Catholics on my block (OK, slight exaggeration). In short, it is a challenging assignment for any bishop.

As reported earlier, the Holy Father has appointed a new Bishop to succeed Bishop Leibrecht: Bishop-elect James Vann Johnston, Jr., formerly a priest of the Diocese of Knoxville, TN. Congratulations to him and to the faithful of Springfield-Cape Girardeau. We should remember him in our prayers.

Now to the good news to which I referred in the headline. A source with connections to Una Voce leadership has informed me that Bishop-elect Johnston helped establish the Traditional Latin Mass in Knoxville in 2004. This, of course, occurred before Summorum Pontificum clarified that the TLM had never been abrogated, and indicates that he supported "generous application" of the Ecclesia Dei "indult". The current Bishop, although he has allowed plans for the Extraordinary Form subsequent to the motu proprio, did not allow any indult traditional Mass in the Diocese.

Great news as the Holy Father seeks to implement his plan of liturgical restoration. St. James, pray for us!

(Update: I re-read Kansas City Catholic's intitial post on the Episcopal Appointment, and he had updated that post with additional information that I hadn't read before the above post. Near the bottom of the KCC post there is further confirmation of the TLM story. KCC also has a great story of the Bishop-elect's assistance in a rescue of a boy from drowning. Sounds like a pretty great guy.)