(logo whooshing) (uplifting music) - Welcome to "At Issue".

I'm H Wayne Wilson.

Thank you so much for joining us on the program.

The Catholic Diocese of Peoria has a new bishop and we are going to be talking to him about many issues, including something called the synod on synodality.

We'll be talking about the consolidation of parishes.

We'll be talking about how to minister to the different ethnicities that are across the Central Illinois area.

And I think you're going to find out we're going to be talking about listening.

The bishop is very keen on that concept.

And let me introduce to you the new bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, Bishop Lou Tylka.

Thank you for being with us.

- It's good to be with you.

Thanks for the invitation.

- And before we talk about listening, just a little bit of background for our viewers.

Coming from the south suburbs.

- Correct, I grew up, was born and raised in the South Suburbs of Chicago.

I was born in Harvey and my family moved to Hazelcrest.

Hazelcrest is a town that's divided by Interstate 80 So I like to say that this is not the first time I lived south of the Interstate 80, I've lived most of my life south of Interstate 80.

But born and raised in the South Suburbs and blessed to go to Catholic grammar school at St. Joe's and Catholic high school, Marian Catholic.

And as the Lord would have it, years later be ordained priest for Chicago and now Bishop for Peoria.

- Marian High School in Chicago Heights?

- [Louis] Chicago Heights, yes.

- And you had many years up in that area?

- Correct.

- What is the difference between that area and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria, which of course stretches across the entire width of the state in Central Illinois?

- The biggest difference, the faith is the same, the people who gather are the same in that they love the Lord, love the Church, wanna do good.

But the difference is, obviously, coming from a much more urban area, suburban area, to a diocese that is 26 counties and majority of the diocese is rural.

And so I like to joke around that when I drive two hours I actually go somewhere now because it could take me two hours to get from my parish to the Pastoral Center in the Archdiocese of Chicago, which was only 29 miles.

But two hours here will get me to the Quad Cities, or out to Champaign, down to Monmouth, or Macomb, so it's a lot spread out.

- Mentioning that, how many parishes are there?

- In the Diocese of Peoria there's 157 churches.

The number of churches and parishes is different.

A parish is a geographic area made up of the people of God who live in that geographic area, and the church is their worship site.

And so we have parishes that actually have multiple worship sites and so you might have a pastor who oversees three parishes, or maybe one parish with two worship sites.

- Being of rural in nature, with the exception of Peoria, Bloomington, Champaign, do you foresee.

And let me mention that a recent, the National Catholic Register Reports that parish collections are down 12%.

And the Gallup Poll shows that 76% of Catholics were churchgoing at the turn of the 21st century, that's down to 63%.

With those numbers in mind, do you see a, may I use the term consolidation of parishes/churches?

- So, the Church has to be focused on mission and our mission, as Jesus said, is to go out and make disciples.

To bring people in to encounter with the Lord himself that transforms their life, that calls them into service to God, the Church, and the community.

In order to be able to be successful in supporting the mission we have to be honest at where we are at today.

We have many churches and we no longer have populations to support those churches, not just financially but even people wise.

So we have to look at what, if I could use the term, the network looks like of churches today?

And we have to be honest enough and courageous enough to say that we may have to do some consolidating, closing, or merging of parishes so that we can devote more of our energy and our resources to the mission than to the maintenance of old structures.

That's a very challenging prospect but it's a necessary prospect for us in this diocese and in many diocese today.

In one way I would like to describe it as, if you want good wine you have to have good grapes and in order to get good grapes you have to prune the vines.

And we might have to do some pruning so that we can grow good grapes for the Kingdom of God.

- You mentioned very briefly the need for people and that includes priests?

- Yes.

- So, are you short on priests in this diocese and how do you go about finding those priests?

- Well, I would respond to that by saying first that there isn't a vocation shortage there's a shortage in people responding to vocations, not just to the priesthood and religious life but even to marriage.

So, we have to build up people's confidence and willingness to say yes to how God calls them to live their life.

We do need more priests.

We have enough priests at the moment to cover our network of parishes however, as we look to the future, those numbers continue to diminish and we need to call more people into serving the Church in vocation so that we can continue this mission that the Lord has given to us.

We're blessed in this diocese to have wonderful priests who are very committed, but to have a priest who has three parishes really stretches him, especially if they're three separate parishes because that means he has three sets of groups that he has to deal with.

He has to have a finance council in each parish.

He has to have a parish council in each parish.

He's dealing with the offices of three parishes.

And in many cases it means that he's running from parish to parish to parish which prevents him from really having a significant, deep, meaningful relationship with the people of God that he serves.

So, we can't keep asking our priest to just take on another parish, which is why we have to look at the network again because we want to have healthy, happy, and holy priests.

That's what I keep telling the guys, I want you to be healthy and happy and holy so that you can have a healthy, happy, and holy church.

And if you're stretched too thin, how is it that we are going to be able to sustain both you and to sustain that community?

- Let me expand on that topic in that the diocese is becoming more and more diverse in many ways.

Ethnicity, there's Congolese congregation over in Bloomington-Normal, there's Asians up in the Quad Cities.

Is it more difficult now for a priest to relate to those individuals?

- Sure, so the beauty of the Church is it's universality, it's Catholicity, so that there are all these different ethnic groups that are part of the Church and they're all welcome.

The challenge is, is that in many cases in immigration in the past, those groups brought their priests with them, that's not happening as much today.

And it's certainly that they're not homogeneous.

Like we talk about the Hispanic population, it doesn't mean that they're all Mexicans, there's Mexicans, there's Guatemalans, there's from other Central American countries.

So, each of those groups bring a richness to the life of the Church but they also bring the challenge of trying to help them remain faithful and minister to their needs.

So when we look at our priests, we're asking them to do a lot more as they try to be welcoming and open to the different ethnic groups that do make up their parishes.

To first find a way to make sure that those folks feel at home and welcome, it's their church as much as it is yours or mine.

So reaching out to them, inviting them in, and then helping them to explore their faith and express their faith in a way that is helpful to their rich cultural heritage.

We can't meet everybody's needs and sometimes we're gonna have to muddle through it, but we will keep working to give the opportunities for those ethnic communities to thrive in our parishes.

And we have to look at how we use our resources, so if we have a priest who is bilingual in Spanish, or bilingual in French as the Congolese community often speaks French, or the Burmese up in the Quad Cities, we have to find ways to either help priests be able to minister in those native languages and/or find ways to support those communities.

- To that point, you're brushing up on limited Spanish ability?

- Yes, yes.

- Because we have a growing Hispanic population in Peoria.

- Sure.

- Do you conduct mass in Spanish?

Let me rephrase.

Do you try to conduct mass?

- I do, I've had 13 weeks of Spanish total in my life and spent six weeks in Mexico, and seven weeks down in San Antonio, Texas when I was in the seminary, which I've been a priest now for almost 26 years so that was a long, long time ago.

And for most of my priesthood I was not assigned in parishes where Spanish was necessary, so trying to pick up the Spanish language today is very important to me.

I am able to read the mass in Spanish.

I able to write out a homily and have one of our Spanish priests or our Office of Hispanic Ministry translate for that so that I could read that in Spanish as well, but I still model through it.

And the good news is, is that my experience of Hispanic community when I attempt to celebrate mass with them, they are very forgiving.

They appreciate the effort and that's, I think, the most important thing is that we show that there is an effort in trying to connect and to reach out and welcome people in their native tongue.

- Have any said, I'll help you with your Spanish?

- (laughs) I've had a few offers, yes.

- I wanna talk about the synod on synodality.

- [Louis] Sure.

- For those who aren't familiar with that term.

It started last fall.

It's about a three year process.

Could you describe what it is trying to accomplish?

- Sure, so a synod in the Church is a gathering of bishops and consultants and experts to discuss a topic that the Holy Father has put forth.

Usually after a period of consultation and study there is a gathering in Rome where the different viewpoints are brought forward from around the world ultimately leading to the Holy Father writing a reflection and offering some teaching to the Church.

The particular synod we're in now, which is the 16th synod that the Church has held since the Second Vatican Council, this synod is on synodality.

So, the whole idea of what does it mean to gather the Church in a way that we listen and accompany one another as we grow in our faith?

It's about praying together.

It's about discerning where the Holy Spirit is calling us.

It's about sharing our ideas of what our hopes and our dreams are, and what our struggles and difficulties are in living out our faith.

And so this current synod on synodality is a way that the Holy Father has really invited the Church to, and in one sense, get back in touch with its nature which is to be able to listen to the signs of the times and to listen to the Holy Spirit and see where God is leading us, together.

- There's that word listen that I mentioned earlier.

You're big on listening.

- I am.

Can you explain what listening means to you?

- Sure.

You know, often we hear but we don't listen.

So, we hear what something somebody says but we don't really internalize it.

We're really not listening in a way that is honoring everything that they're saying, trying to understand what their point is, we're making judgments before they're even done speaking.

And listening is really creating a space, an attitude, an openness to really hear in a deep level and a meaningful level and engage in a dialogue so that what you have to say can be taken in by me and what I have to say can be taken in by you, and together we can see a path forward.

We can see where we are much more common than we are different, and see what it is that God is calling us to.

And so we need to be willing to listen to a lot of different viewpoints, and that's what the synod on synodality is encouraging us to do, is to be able to say I'm not gonna walk into a conversation with somebody and say, I already know that they have a different viewpoint than I have and so they have nothing to tell me.

But rather to say, perhaps you have a different viewpoint, I wanna understand you and I wanna share my viewpoint so that together perhaps we can learn something about who we are and who we are called to be.

- [H Wayne] Would you like to speak to Congress about that issue?

- If they're willing to listen.

(both laughing) - Listen.

So, Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg is in charge of the final report which will come two, two and a half years from now.

- Correct.

- And there are some who suggest that because he's overseeing that process, that there might be some inclusion in the report of female ordination recommendation, same sex union.

So, how do you view that and does Pope Francis have the final say on how we look at that report?

What parts do we say yes, this is where we're going.

Let's put this on the back burner.

- So, I would say it's probably far too early to judge what will, and even maybe speculate what will be in that final report.

Usually in past synods there's been a very specific topic to look at.

And so it's been very clear what we're talking about or what the issue is that is at hand as the Church gathers in a synod.

This synod is really about process.

How do we listen and get those different viewpoints?

How do we discern what are the big topics that people are carrying?

And so the process that we're in right now is wide open and all the diocese, all the Church, even beyond the Church people are invited to share their viewpoints and their thoughts that will be collected and then brought forward.

Eventually, in this three year process, there will be that gathering where those topics that have been raised up from around the world that seem to be most pertinent at the moment will be discussed.

Ultimately, there will be a synthesis of all that has been gathered over these three years, submitted to the Holy Father who then will, because of his role as the head of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, he will take that to his own prayer.

He will have listened well, he's proven already how well of a listener he is.

He will have listened to what has been shared across the world and he will discern where God is in the Spirit is inspiring him to respond.

And if there's things that are brought up that aren't decided, it's not that they have been rejected or even accepted, it's that it's not the time for the Church to address that particular issue.

Which will likely mean some people will be disappointed and likely mean that some people we have happy we didn't talk about certain things.

- Women are part of this synod on synodality.

- Absolutely.

- Do you see a greater role for females in the Church?

And I'd like you to address the ordination of females, but how do you view that?

- I think that the role of women in the Church is an essential role already today and their influence and leadership in the Church continues to grow and we should look for ways to continue to include women as leaders in the Church.

In this whole process of the synod on synodality there are women who are appointed as leaders in laying out the process and watching this process unfold over the next several years.

The Holy Father just recently released his revision, a reform of the Roman Curia, all the offices that make up the running of the Church from Rome.

In that effort he has opened the possibility and even, in some ways I would say, created the expectation that we include women in higher levels of leadership in the Church, even if that is not priestly ordination.

That's a topic that I think is a hot button topic that people wanna get you on.

Do you believe in women to ordination or don't you?

It's not so much about ordination, it's about respecting each person's gifts and talents and how they are called forth to be utilized for the sake of the gospel and the building up of the Church.

We can certainly be open and pray for the guidance of the Spirit but I would say that it's first important to be open and praying for that guidance of the Spirit so that we include everyone and use those gifts and talents for the betterment of the Church.

And let's not get bogged down into an argument about whether someone should be ordained or not?

- You talk about inclusion of everyone.

- Yes.

- And we've talked about ethnic groups.

- Yes.

- What about the LGBTQ community?

- The folks who are part of the LGBTQ community should be welcomed into the Church.

They're children of God.

We believe that everyone is made in the image and likeness of God.

So we have to, again, listen to their experience because their experience often, for them, feels like exclusion not inclusion.

And so we have to work to create ways in which they do feel included in the life of the Church.

The way I would address that is that no matter what a person's race, sexuality, sexual orientation, economic status, is inconsequential because the first thing that anybody needs to know is that God loves them for who they are.

And before I can challenge anybody to live a life different than the life they're living, I have to help them to come to understand that God loves them and I love them too.

And it's out of that experience of being loved that we then examine our own lives, no matter who we are, and realize, I can do more, I can be more.

God wants more of me because he loves me and he has made me for who I am.

So, my interest is being open and welcoming to anyone who comes to the Church, who wants to know that they are loved by God and wants a relationship with Jesus that will transform their life to live more for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.

- So, during the pandemic did you get a sense that some people turned away from the Church because of the pandemic, or did people turn to the Church during the pandemic?

- It's actually both of those situations.

There are folks who I think, for whatever reasons in their own life, have been questioning or struggling with their faith, or practice of their faith, or relationship to the Church, any church not just the Catholic church, that in the midst of the pandemic they found an excuse to be able to justify walking away.

At the same time, there were many folks who struggled and perhaps didn't even have an experience of faith in their life that because of the existential questions that the pandemic presented to us have realized that faith is a very important part, and a relationship with God and a community of faith is very important, so they have been drawn to the Church.

It's a reality that we all are given the gift of faith and how we live that out certainly is a challenge that we individually have to choose.

Obviously I believe very much so, that Jesus created a community call, that we call ourselves the Church, the community of the apostles that grew into the early church that has existed ever since.

And that that's the way to go, to be supported and encouraged and to live out our faith as a part of a community of believers is vital.

And the pandemic just created and heightened some of the reality that there are those who, for whatever reason, which is foreign to my own mind because I don't believe that, but have chosen to live their life without God, or without being a part of a faith community.

As well as now it has also drawn people back into a relationship with the Church and with the Lord.

- Let's turn the conversation to technology for just a moment.

Has technology helped you to reach out to those who might have been on the fringe?

- [Louis] Absolutely.

- And how is that benefiting the Church?

- So, I would respond to that in a couple ways.

First in, especially being here in the Diocese of Peoria where our native son Archbishop Fulton Sheen used the technology, new technology of his day, TV and radio to spread the gospel.

It's just a great example that we have to use these new instruments and tools to help us spread the good news of the gospel.

In the pandemic itself, things happened so quickly.

I was a pastor when the pandemic started and it was a very quick lesson of how do I reach to the people of my parish if I can't physically be with them?

And so livestreaming a mass or offering a reflection, those were things that I quickly had to learn and use the gifts of others.

And one, a quick story on that; when I was pastor, on a whim in a conversation we thought, what if we did a midweek moment that we just offered a little bit of a reflection?

And so I started for the first months of the pandemic, every Wednesday we had a livestream moment of my reflecting.

My sister, at the time, lived in Albuquerque.

She talked about that, she told her coworkers, she's a nurse practitioner, she told her coworkers about her brother the priest who they livestreamed the mass.

And one of her workers told her husband who was the truck driver, that he should watch this mass from the priest back in Tinley Park and he told other truckers.

I was like the minister of the truck drivers that I never met.

But they were watching both the mass that we celebrated from our parish, as well as that reflection time in the middle of the week.

- It makes it difficult to know how many people you've actually reached?

- Absolutely.

- You mentioned Fulton Sheen.

- Yes.

- Is there an update on the effort for sainthood?

- Well, one of the questions I got asked and continue get asked, is when I, as the Bishop of Peoria, am gonna make Fulton Sheen a saint?

I can't do that.

I can promote his legacy and the wonderful work that he did and I will definitely do that as Bishop of Peoria.

I have reached out to the competent authorities, both the nuncio here in the United States as well as the Congregations for the Causes of Saints, as well as the Secretary of State office in the Vatican as well, asking them to move forward.

So the good news is, is they have responded that they will study this and that we, hopefully, will be able to move forward in short order.

But I honestly don't have any specific update on that.

- We'll ask you back when the news comes down.

- Sure, be happy to.

- [H Wayne] Thank you so much to Bishop Lou Tylka, the Catholic Diocese of Peoria for being on "At Issue".

- Thank you, thank you.

- And we'll be back next time with another discussion.

We hope you've listened closely when we talk about concussions.

We'll have those who have suffered concussions, we'll have a physician, and someone who has studied the recovery process and detection of concussions on the next "At Issue".

(uplifting music)