The newly-elected President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, says he is ‘humbled’ and asks for prayers that he be “a faithful steward and a wise servant of unity and communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and with my brother Bishops and priests.”

By Deborah Castellano Lubov

“I’m humbled by the trust which my brother bishops have placed in me by choosing me to serve as president of our episcopal conference.”

Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City expressed this following his election by the U.S. Bishops as the new president-elect of the USCCB during  their Plenary Assembly in Baltimore on Tuesday.

The Assembly also elected Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, to serve as the new vice president.

Their appointments follow as Archbishop Timothy Broglio and Archbishop William Lori prepare to step down from their roles at the expiry of their three-year terms in office.

Archbishop Coakley: ‘Pray I may be a faithful steward’

Archbishop Coakley recalled that when he became a Bishop, he chose as his episcopal motto, “Duc in altum,” or “Put Out into the Deep, saying that “once again, the Lord is inviting me to put out into deep waters in calling me to accept this service and burden of leadership today.”

“I accept it,” the USCCB President elect said, “in faith and with great hope, ” as he asked for the prayers of all of the clergy, religious women and men and the faithful of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.

“I have great confidence in the staff of both the USCCB and our own Archdiocese,” he noted, sharing “They will help me shoulder these responsibilities.”

Finally, the new leader of the US Bishops asked, “Please pray that I may be a faithful steward and a wise servant of unity and communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and with my brother Bishops and priests.”

“Please pray that I may be a faithful steward and a wise servant of unity and communion with our Holy Father, Pope Leo, and with my brother bishops and priests.”

Meanwhile, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, addressed the assembly, expressing his conviction that “Vatican II remains the key to understanding what kind of Church we are called to be today and the reference point for discerning where we are headed.”

Cardinal Pierre reaffirms Church’s continued missionary mandate

Cardinal Pierre acknowledged how Pope Leo has upheld the importance of the Second Vatican Council, as he did two days after his election when he told the cardinals, when he stated, “I would like us to renew together today our complete commitment to the path that the universal Church has now followed for decades in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.”

Pope Leo continued, the nuncio recalled, by saying “Pope Francis masterfully and concretely set it forth in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,” and highlighted “several fundamental points…”

Those points, the Holy Father had said, included the return to the primacy of Christ in proclamation; the missionary conversion of the entire Christian community; growth in collegiality and synodality; attention to the sensus fidei, especially in its most authentic and inclusive forms, such as popular piety; loving care for the least and the rejected; courageous and trusting dialogue with the contemporary world in its various components and realities.

Recalling this missionary impulse the late Pope Francis emphasized for the Church, “Pope Leo,” Cardinal Pierre suggested, “wants us to continue in that direction.”