Coverage of the installation of the new bishop of Birmingham has been mysteriously scarce — in the general media and in the blogosphere (as one of my readers noted).

But Whispers in the Loggia has corrected that injustice with a lengthy report that includes one or two eyebrow-raisers, along with Robert Baker’s homily. Take it away, Rocco:

Once upon a time, long before all this, I got to know the unexpected, very sweet, very generous kindness of the then-newly-named bishop of Charleston, Robert Baker. And at his installation today in Birmingham — the long-awaited coda to the longest vacancy of a US diocese since 1814 — that kindness manifested itself yet again, and in a rather shocking way.

Saying that the long-empty cathedra was “very comfortable,” among those greeted by the new head of Northern Alabama’s diocese of 100,000-plus (and one Very Important Apostolate) was Sr Mary Catherine, Mother-Vicar of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery and, ergo, second-in-command to Mother Angelica. Much of the cloistered Poor Clare community showed for the liturgy, which packed the 900-seat St Paul’s Cathedral and an overflow hall in its adjacent center.

And, gratefully, Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb’s missing pallium has been recovered.

A native Ohioan yet, as he puts it, “a Southerner by choice” — below is the fulltext of yesterday’s homily given by the longtime prelate who’s neither the butcher nor the candlestick-maker.

[Disclaimer: much as your narrator would wish otherwise, its opening words are accurate.]

I am happy to be the new Bishop of Birmingham in Alabama. No more rumors. No more Whispers in the Loggia!

[Again, yes, he actually said that.]

I thank Archbishop Sambi for his presence today, representing our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI. I appreciate, Archbishop, your arrival here in Birmingham, one day after the installation of Archbishop O’Brien in Baltimore and your kindness in making it possible for me to be installed on the Feast of the Guardian Angels. I was ordained a bishop in 1999 on the Feast of the Archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. So I am fortunate to have the Angels looking out for me full force today. I pray to the Angels twice a day to help me in my ministry as a bishop, and they never fail me. Thank you Archbishop Sambi, for letting all of us honor them with this installation ceremony on their feast day.

Archbishop Sambi, I join all in the Diocese of Birmingham in pledging our loyalty and devotion to our Holy Father, grateful for the wisdom and courage he has demonstrated as Vicar of Christ and Universal Shepherd to the People of God, and I offer him today my personal prayers and my faithful support in my ministry as Bishop of Birmingham.

To you, Cardinal Rigali, I express my thanks for your presence and your prayers for me. All of us extend our greetings and good wishes to you and to all in the great Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love.

Greetings and thanks to Archbishop Lipscomb, my Metropolitan Archbishop, for installing me in that chair that has lain vacant for quite a while. It won’t be long until it will get its fair share of usage once again.

And to the previous occupant of that chair and distinguished former Bishop of the Diocese of Birmingham, Bishop Foley, I join everyone here in saying thank you for your devoted leadership of the diocese long after the official time for retirement. You must have wondered. Is anyone ever going to succeed me? Well, finally you have a successor and one who is grateful to be your successor. I thank you again for your warm and gracious welcome to me from the first day I arrived.

To my brother bishops, abbots, chorbishop, priests, deacons, religious men and women in the consecrated life, seminarians, members of lay organizations, devoted lay women and men, leaders of faith communities, representatives of city and state government, welcome, and thank you for your presence and your prayers for me. I look forward to working closely with all of you in the days ahead. Please continue to keep me in your prayers and I will, all of you.

The preliminaries aside, Bishop Baker spoke extensively — in two languages — on the theme of love. Here is his conclusion:

Loving us the Good Shepherd inspires us to welcome the stranger in our midst. The stranger who may be a new parishioner or someone of different ethnic background than one’s own. That stranger may be someone in my home I have trouble communicating with. That stranger may be the unborn infant in the womb who may be unloved and unwelcomed by a parent or parents, by the society in which we live, a stranger who gets the death sentence before breathing the first breath of life.

Are we not living in a culture and society that is a breeding ground for strangers? A good shepherd welcomes the stranger. The good shepherd helps people discover they are strangers and aliens no longer, but friends.

Loving us the Good Shepherd protects us from all evil and all harm. The Shepherd points out to us those areas of harm for us before we recklessly stumble upon them and lose our lives physically and spiritually. That is the difference between the good shepherd and the hireling.

The great St. Augustine models for us the concern a pastor should have for his parish, a bishop for his diocese. In one of his sermons he says:

“So far as the God whom I fear grants me the strength, I shall search everywhere. I shall recall the straying; I shall seek after those on the verge of being lost. If you do not want me to suffer, do not stray, do not become lost.”

St. Augustine talks about the Church as a shepherd. He says, “Our Catholic Mother is herself a shepherd; she seeks the straying sheep everywhere, strengthens the weak, heals the sick, and binds up the injured. They may not know one another, but she knows all of them because she reaches out to all her sheep.”

St. Augustine and St. Paul were great imitators of Christ. Good and powerful pastors of those committed to their care.

Please pray for me today as I assume the mantle of shepherd of the Diocese of Birmingham. Help me by your prayers and support to model the Good Shepherd by entering more fully into His life and His love. Pray that I come to know Him better and love Him in an even greater way, so that I can daily entrust my life totally to Him.

May Mary, the Mother of God, lead me to her Son and help me lead others to Him through her prayerful and powerful intercession.

And may all the Archangels and Angels and all the Saints of our Church prayerfully intercede today for all of us here in this congregation and those united with us in prayer, as we now pray for the Diocese of Birmingham and its new shepherd the prayer to the Angels:

Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here. Ever this day be at my side to light, to guard, to rule, to guide. Amen.

Surely, this is the firs time a bishop has greeted his flock by alluding to the blogosphere in the beginning and a childhood prayer to the angels at the end! You can read the full text at Whispers.

Photo: by Mark Almond/Birmingham News