A joyous flock gathers

The script and the sermon stressed tradition and unity Wednesday as newly named Omaha Archbishop George J. Lucas was formally installed in a solemn ceremony at St. Cecilia Cathedral.

More than 1,000 people witnessed the historic event in which Lucas officially took over from retiring Archbishop Elden F. Curtiss.

It was an invitation-only throng, but they were picked to represent the breadth and diversity of the Omaha Archdiocese. Representatives came from every one of the archdiocese's 148 parishes and missions in 23 counties of northeastern Nebraska.

Hundreds of Catholic priests, religious brothers and nuns, permanent deacons and educators joined parishioners in filling the cathedral to standing room only.

Many of the leaders of the U.S. church were there as well. Two cardinals — Francis George of Chicago and Justin Rigali of Philadelphia — and about 40 bishops and archbishops participated. So did an emissary from the Vatican, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, the papal nuncio to the United States.

"It's a celebration of our faith and our new archbishop," said the Rev. Joseph Taphorn, Omaha archdiocese chancellor. "He is the leader of a quarter-million souls in Nebraska."

The ceremony began with a moment of theater. Lucas waited outside as nearly everyone else filed into the cathedral. Then he knocked five times on the edifice's massive bronze doors, symbolically seeking admission from the local church.

The Rev. Michael Gutgsell opened the doors.

Inside, Lucas and other church officials took prescribed steps necessary under Catholic Church law for him to take the office.

Sambi, speaking in English with a heavy Italian accent, said that Jesus spoke of unity at the Last Supper. The Catholic Church's Vatican II Council also stressed unity, Sambi said.

He read aloud an official document from Pope Benedict declaring the 60-year-old Lucas, formerly bishop of Springfield, Ill., archbishop of Omaha.

Then Sambi and Curtiss led Lucas to the archbishop's chair, an ornately carved seat that's part of the woodwork in the cathedral sanctuary. A priest handed Lucas a crosier, or shepherd's staff, that Omaha archbishops have used at least since the 1940s.

Upon accepting the crosier and taking the seat, Lucas officially became archbishop.

People applauded. Then a hand-picked committee walked forward to ceremonially welcome Lucas to Nebraska. It included white people and black people, nuns and brothers, Asians, Latinos, people from cities and suburbs, small towns and farms.

The first representatives to shake his hand were from the St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago, Neb.

"They told us we were first because we were the first people here," Sarah Snake said.

Snake, who also attended Curtiss' installation in 1993, said she welcomed Lucas and invited him to Winnebago.

"He said he's anxious to come and visit us," Snake said.

Omahan Bob Cooper, a parishioner at St. Benedict the Moor in north Omaha, liked what he saw when he and his wife, Joyce, greeted Lucas in the ceremony.

"I always like to look in a person's eyes, and he's got good eyes to look into," said Cooper, grand knight of the Knights of Peter Claver Council 308. "Caring eyes. He seems like a good man who will do a lot for the archdiocese. It will help that he's got a happy attitude."

"And a firm handshake," Joyce Cooper said.

St. Cecilia parishioners Dr. Anna Lavedan and her husband, Dr. Pierre Lavedan, helped represent local Filipinos. He said it was wonderful to see the cathedral full, especially with so many priests, brothers and sisters.

Sister Norita Cooney, a leader of the Sisters of Mercy religious order and former Bergan Mercy Medical Center executive, found the installation ceremony and Mass inspiring. She saw a metaphor in the welcoming committee.

"They were all mixed," she said. "It wasn't all the nuns and brothers together, and then all the parishioners together. It was one group after another, all mixed, and that's how we work in this diocese."

Lucas led a Mass after the installation rite. The first Scripture reading was done in Spanish.

In Lucas' homily, he thanked everyone from his family and Curtiss, to the clergy of Nebraska and cathedral musicians.

Then Lucas, who has a reputation for being approachable and trying to bring people together, connected the dots.

"All of these different people whom I have mentioned manifest the action of the one Holy Spirit," he said. "We are not separate constituencies; we are not partisans. We are members of the Body of Christ. . .Through our various forms of service, Jesus is known in the Archdiocese of Omaha, known in the Church throughout the world."

He traced his and other bishops' duty, caring for the faithful, to the pope and to the apostles of Jesus.

"The responsibility of shepherding the flock of Christ belongs in a particular way to bishops," he said. "But you will soon be reminded of what you already know — I can't do it by myself.

"We all share, each in our own way, in extending the care of the Good Shepherd to a fragmented world. Let us commit ourselves to think, pray, work and worship together — with all of our attention on the risen Christ. Then our every sacrifice will be so fruitful, and our witness will be so clear, that no one in northeast Nebraska will ever wonder whom we love and serve."

The Rev. Ryan Lewis, pastor of St. Thomas More parish in Omaha, found inspiration and challenge "to live the faith in the community."

"We got all fired up about the really good stuff," he said. "Let's take that momentum, that energy, that positivity, and get out there and do the work we're called to do as Christians."