I don’t know how I missed this one, but here’s the quite interesting interview with Bishop Finn of KC from their diocesan paper

Bishop Finn, who was formerly a priest of the archdiocese of St. Louis, and editor of their diocesan paper for many years, has great plans. (I met him in 2000 when he invited me to speak at a St. Louis Archdiocesan Eucharistic Congress. It’s where this moment happened. That’s Joseph, of course, not the new baby. As I recall, Joseph had not yet been baptized – that was going to happen a month or so later. Fr. Groeschel scolded us, mildly.)

Anyway, what Bishop Finn emphasizes is that the reason the Church exists is to save souls, to bring the love of Christ into the world. Lay people are at the heart of that mission. Not clerical laity (who do have their function), but the laity who are completely out in the world, living their faith in families, in the workplace, in society. Formation of the laity is obviously going to be a priority. He’s cutting the budget for the lay ministry formation program and placing more emphasis on adult catechesis.

Bishop Finn said that whatever adult education programs are developed after Sasso’s study, they should be sensitive to the busy lives lay Catholics lead, and be portable to parishes in the diocese.

"Having worked in rural parishes for half my priesthood, I am aware of the strong sense of family and faith that come out of those areas, as I am aware of the richness in city parishes as well," he said.

"The diocese has a broad array of parishes. I think that sometimes the people in the city areas tend to forget about the people in the rural areas," he said.

Bishop Finn said the adult education program will have components that are short in duration, and will be deeply rooted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, both of which encompass 2,000 years of church tradition.

Of course what everyone’s all blogged-up about is the fact that Bishop Finn has dropped the columns of Fr. Richard McBrien from the diocesan paper.

Father McBrien likes to stir the pot," Bishop Finn said. "He approaches things with a certain skepticism and cynicism. You can get that in a lot of places, so go get it somewhere else.

"We need clear expressions of the meaning of faith, why we believe and how we can inspire each other," he said. "We’ve got to give people hope and direction, and we don’t have a lot of time and space (in the newspaper) to do that. I think we can do a whole lot better."

More, please. An emphasis on mission and spirituality and the basic point of it all with a willingness to do what it takes to focus. I’d be very interested in how this is being received in the diocese. Todd, of course, lives and works there, but anyone else besides?

Discussion at Rocco’s and The Curt Jester