Bishops take more flak these days than a B-24 Liberator over Berlin in 1944.
Even the Bishop of Rome nowadays is “fair game” for politicians, pundits, and even everyday Church-goers. I never thought I would be on a first-name basis with a bishop until my brother was consecrated as one in 2015. Those were heady days. My brother would always say the best job in the world was being an auxiliary bishop in Los Angeles with Archbishop José H. Gomez as your boss.
But little did my brother, or the rest of his family, realize how short those days would be until he was sent by Pope Francis to lead the Diocese of Fresno. It was an undiscovered country for my brother, and he was on his own now. There were, and still are, many challenges for him, as there are for any bishop anywhere in the world. But the “main” office is still being handled by the Lord, so with faith and some semi-regular extra-strength Tylenol, he is doing fine.
I think bishops have long been misunderstood. They are sometimes seen as ecclesiastical branch managers who must report to their CEO in Rome at regular intervals. At various times, when the Church was wedded to the State as it was in dynastic Europe, bishops wielded more temporal power than was good for them. They are not branch managers, and although they do have to report back to the Bishop of Rome periodically, they are reporting back to a brother bishop.
Like so many wonderful complexities of our Faith, the pope is equal to all other bishops until he is not. It is that wonderful mystery of Church governance that can be hard to fathom while comforting at the same time.
I am old enough to remember when a bishop had a driver, a housekeeper, a large staff, and an even larger residence. Some bishop residences I have seen are palatial. But gradually, and sometimes even speedily, bishops across the United States have generally downsized.
My brother could use a cook, though. If you looked at the oven of his home in a suburb of Fresno, you could tell by its pristine interior that this cooking device has never fired a shot in anger at a chicken, turkey, or roast (but his refrigerator is well-stocked with microwavable bacon, M&Ms, and enough other chocolate-based products to keep the Hershey Company in Pennsylvania solvent for the next 30 years).
Bishops have not always had the greatest track records. The very first bishop, who was an equal to his fellow fishermen/bishops, had his moments of regret. In Henry VIII’s England, a country at one time considered a rival to France as the most Catholic country in Europe at the time, every one of her bishops went along with Henry’s break with the Church, with the exception of the saint and bishop John Fisher.
People do like to complain about their bishop, even the one in Rome. The “problem” with bishops is the same problem with the priesthood, the staff at your local fast food hamburger stand, or the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company plant in Michigan: its primary source for members must be drawn from humanity. Robots are making inroads in all these fields, but for now the clergy is safe from being rendered redundant.
Being a bishop is serious business with heavy responsibilities I would not wish upon anyone, let alone a friend or a brother. I have seen how it burdens someone I have known and loved my entire life. When my brother took on his crozier-shaped cross, it was with a sense of prayerful surrender and a deep hope that he would be up to the task. Any man who would receive that fateful call from the papal nuncio and react saying “it’s about time” would not make a good bishop in my book.
But with a stalwart faith in the ultimate CEO, my brother said yes. Not everyone is going to like “their” bishops, and I must confess I have heard bishops say things — and seen them do things — I cannot figure out. Some of it has made me angry, some of it has made me confused. But when those incidents occur, I know I must compose myself, get a hold of my own stubbornness and overstated sense of importance, and leave my concerns at the foot of the cross.
I do not know what trials or personal issues anyone, let alone a bishop, may be going through. Bishops are never really “off the clock.” They have this heady responsibility to be present and be shepherds even when their flock is unruly.
According to Vatican statistics, there were about 5,430 bishops around the world in 2025. That is a lot of bishops to keep track of. But if God knows whenever a sparrow hits the dirt, he can certainly keep those men in his hand, and we should keep them all, even the ones we may not fully understand, in our prayers.
