Pittsburgh’s new bishop-designate is getting to know his priests — and they are all aware that, like so many dioceses around the country, they have a lot of challenges ahead of them. Most urgently, the shortage of priests.

The local paper takes note:

When Bishop-designate David Zubik walked into a room filled with 240 Catholic priests from Pittsburgh last week, they rose to their feet and applauded.

Bishop Zubik, clad in black slacks and a sports shirt, cupped his hands like a megaphone and shouted, “All I have to say is, will you feel the same way six months from now?”

The priests burst into laughter. But it is a real question. They are delighted that another native son of Pittsburgh will take the bishop’s seat in St. Paul Cathedral on Friday. But the diocese faces difficult choices and changes, as large classes of priests will soon retire with few to replace them.

Last year, the diocese projected that by the end of 2008, 65 priests would reach retirement age while just seven would be ordained. Fifty of 214 parishes now share priests with other parishes, and the first lay person has been assigned to oversee a parish that has no pastor.

Last week, Bishop Zubik made his second visit to this area since the July 18 announcement of his appointment by Pope Benedict XVI. The occasion was the triennial gathering of diocesan priests at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, W.Va., for continuing education, fellowship and recreation.

Now 58, he had long been part of that gathering as a priest and auxiliary bishop here. His last time was in 2001, two years before he became bishop of Green Bay, Wis. Last week, he blended seamlessly into the ranks of parish priests, taking an inconspicuous second-row seat for morning prayer. After lunch he stood with his arms on the shoulders of two priests, talking football.

Returning to Oglebay “has given me a grand opportunity to connect and reconnect with almost all of the priests,” Bishop Zubik said.

One of his goals is to make sure they feel affirmed.

“I wonder at times if there is the kind of appreciation for the [priests] of Pittsburgh that there should be,” he said. “This is a mighty, mighty, awesome group of priests. Their love for God and for the church, and all of the talent that they have to offer, bodes well for the church as we move into the future.”

The future was the theme at Oglebay, as Archbishop Michael Sheehan of Santa Fe, N.M., and speakers from the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association spoke on “the priest as evangelist and the evangelizing parish.”

The Rev. Frank DiSiano, a Paulist expert on evangelization, told the priests that parishes spend most of their time and money on ministry to committed Catholics, and very little reaching out to those who have fallen away or never believed. He urged them to build parish priorities around outreach, and said that mandate must come from the bishop.

Bishop Zubik said taking the faith beyond church walls will be the theme of his installation homily.

“We have to begin to show people that we really are excited about our faith,” he said. “Imagine what would happen if we really took that seriously — if we were able to grasp the closeness of God in our lives and let that take root in our words and deeds. We would go a long way toward helping God build a better world.”

That concern for evangelization is on target, said the Rev. Frank Almade, administrator of three parishes in Sharpsburg.

“This isn’t just about the declining number of priests, it’s fundamentally about the declining number of people,” he said. “We have hard challenges ahead with evangelization and mission.”

Because Bishop Zubik spent 16 years in diocesan administration here, “there will be almost no learning curve,” said the Rev. Charles Bober, pastor of St. Kilian in Mars. That’s good, he said, because the issues are serious.

“Pittsburgh priests, because they have had good examples in the past and because of their own experience, know how to do good ministry,” he said. “But the fact that there are fewer and fewer of us is frustrating. You can’t do what you know you should do or want to do, because there is so much to be done.

“Bishop Zubik can’t work miracles. To expect him to solve all of our problems is really very unrealistic. But I think he will go to the root of it. I think he will work very closely with the seminarians and in recruiting vocations. And I think he will do that almost immediately. We may not see the results in the first five or even 10 years of his work here, but the work he will do immediately will be seen eventually.”

There’s more at the link about vocations and the years ahead.

I have to say: I like Bishop Zubik’s style. But he has his work cut out for him. Let’s keep him and his flock in our prayers.