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Pope promotes priest to bishop in Michigan
(by Barbara Christian - April 27, 2013)
Pope promotes priest to bishop in Michigan
By BARBARA CHRISTIAN
CHAGRIN FALLS – Holy Week 2013 is one the Rev. David J. Walkowiak will not soon forget at St. Joan of Arc Church.
It was then that he learned he was about to leave life as a Catholic parish priest to become bishop of the 11-county, 200,000-member, 85-parish and 32-school Diocese of Grand Rapids, Mich., an appointment made by Pope Francis.
“I was sitting at my desk preparing for Holy Week when the call came. I was shocked,” he said this week. “The aftershock was knowing I would be bishop of an entire diocese. That’s like skipping a grade level and was not on my radar screen at all.”
Priest at St. Joan of Arc for seven years, the Rev. Walkowiak is no stranger in the art of switching gears. Now 59, the Chagrin Falls parish is his first as a priest. For 25 years prior, the native Cleveland west-sider and St. Ignatius High School graduate served the Cleveland Diocese in special ministries and administrative capacities.
It was his decision to apply for the St. Joan of Arc Church position in which he has loved every moment, he said. He will miss not just the parish and parishioners he has come to know so well, but the Chagrin Valley as well.
“No priest in his right mind would want to leave St. Joan’s, these people or this area,” he said. “We live in such a beautiful place.”
Church council member Liz O’Neil said, “The father is very interested in being involved in the community and family lives of his parishioners. ... We enjoyed accompanying him to community events like school sports and the high school plays, where he saw his parishioners in their element.”
The Rev. Walkowiak attended a news conference last week in Grand Rapids, where he received a warm welcome. “I think they were relieved to finally have a name and a face and another Midwesterner,” he said of his introduction. “It is a vibrant community, and I feel in a very good position there.”
Upon arriving home from Grand Rapids, the Rev. Walkowiak found a gigantic card of congratulations. “It was the first thing I saw when I walked through the kitchen door,” he said of the card signed by St. Joan of Arc School children wishing him well in his new position.
He visited with the students and said he tried to explain his leaving in terms they would understand, such as when their father accepts a new job and the family moves to another town.
Dr. Scott Zimmer, co-chair of the church council, said he has appreciated the Rev. Walkowiak’s openness to ideas, especially where young people are concerned.
“He listens to us, the younger generation of Catholics,” he said, adding as an example the Second Sunday Mass, a youth-driven service during which young parishioners – confirmation age through high school – choose the music. “I think father has been very excited about Second Sunday Mass, too.”
Parish council co-chairman Al Catani represents the older parish generation. When he talks about the Rev. Walko-wiak, he uses words like “strength,” “talent,” “intelligence” and “enthusiasm.”
“Early on, Father David demonstrated a strong sense of leadership,” he said. “I was immediately struck with his intelligence and his focus on each parishioner. On the second Sunday after his arrival, he greeted us each by name and made some personal comment based on our first meeting the previous week.”
As Dr. Zimmer noted, Mr. Catani said the Rev. Walkowiak inspired ideas and involved members of the parish in the life of the church whether it be administrative or spiritual. “He seeks input and makes well-informed decisions and in a well-educated parish. That approach goes a long way.”
The Rev. Walkowiak will be ordained June 18 in Grand Rapids and plans to continue his daily Masses and other duties at St. Joan of Arc until then.
“It is going to be very bittersweet,” he said of his imminent departure. “I have found that when something is asked of me that the Lord is with me and the people are with me, and I enjoy the mission I did not choose.”
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