DETROIT — Bishop-elect Jeffrey M. Monforton was at home watching the news on television and had run to the kitchen to tend to the simple meal he was microwaving when the papal nuncio’s call came. So he missed it.
But on returning to his chair, he noticed the caller ID, and having served seven years as Cardinal Adam Maida’s secretary, instantly recognized the phone number. He immediately called back, and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò asked him whether he would accept the Holy Father’s request that he become the next bishop of the Diocese of Steubenville in southeastern Ohio.
|
“I felt humbled by the request, and answered in the affirmative,” the 49-year-old bishop-elect said.
But if that sounds like an occasion for celebration, he instead thought he had better put any festive rejoicing off to another day. Other than a call to Archbishop Allen Vigneron to inform him of the development, Bishop-elect Monforton just ate his Lean Cuisine supper, and then went back to making calls to the leadership team for the Changing Lives Together capital campaign at St. Andrew Parish in Rochester.
Bishop-elect Monforton has been pastor of the parish — the largest in the archdiocese — for just a few months since leaving Sacred Heart Major Seminary, where he had been rector for six years. He had expected to remain St. Andrew’s pastor for some time, and had already begun implementing some new programs in the parish and its affiliated school, Holy Family Grade School.
“I was stunned, not speechless, but I didn’t in my wildest dreams expect this,” he said of the news of his appointment.
But he now looks back on some of the work he has done in his parish, seminary and archdiocesan assignments and sees how “the Holy Spirit has prepared me for this in ways I had not anticipated.”
After being notified, Bishop-elect Monforton said he was allowed to discuss his appointment with Cardinal Maida and Cardinal Edmund C. Szoka, as well as to inform his mother so she could accompany him to the July 3 news conference in Steubenville, where he was introduced to the local media.
His appointment was officially announced earlier that day at the Vatican.
Virginia Monforton, the bishop-elect’s mother and a member of SS. Simon & Jude Parish, Westland, said the news of her son’s appointment was unexpected but a blessing.
“I was quite surprised, but very joyful, when he told me he was being made a bishop. I know he has moved along pretty quickly, having headed the seminary and all, but I honestly thought he would retire as pastor of a parish,” she said. “I have full confidence he will be a very fine bishop, because he listens, he’s considerate, he’s a good leader, and he’s a good, holy priest.”
Between now and his Sept. 10 episcopal ordination and installation at Franciscan University of Steubenville — at 2 p.m. — the bishop-elect will be wrapping up matters at St. Andrew Parish and getting to know his new diocese.
In some ways there are great contrasts, while in other ways there are similarities between the diocese he is leaving and the one where he is going.
“St. Andrew has 5,200 families, which works out to about 15,000 souls — only 23,000 fewer than in the entire Diocese of Steubenville,” he noted.
On the other hand, it is a mostly blue-collar area whose steel and coal industries have been “very much affected by and bear the scars of the Great Recession,” Bishop-elect Monforton said.
Situated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, the area is said to get even more snow than the Detroit area in winter. But Bishop-elect Monforton said that shouldn’t be a problem with the four-wheel-drive Ford Explorer he bought last year.
Besides the Franciscan University of Steubenville, the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, is also within the diocesan boundaries.
He said his initial impression is that his new diocese has strong parishes, and he foresees his priorities as promoting priestly vocations, education, social outreach, and building up the parishes “to make sure they are building up the people of God.”
Bishop-elect Monforton, who grew up in Westland, said Metro Detroit will always be his home, “but come Sept. 10, Steubenville is my new home.”
“There is a sadness about leaving, but also a freshness about listening to the Lord and going where he wants me right now,” he said.
The Steubenville Diocese has been without a bishop since Bishop R. Daniel Conlon was installed in the Diocese of Joliet, Ill., in July 2011.
Msgr. Kurt H. Kemo has served as diocesan administrator in the interim.
Patricia DeFrancis of the Steubenville Register contributed to this story.
