The Off the Record blog of the Catholic World News has a post about Bishop Murphy and his meeting with his priests. This line is so very true:

"Rockville Centre is a remarkable diocese. With 1.5 million Catholics, it should be a showcase of ministry in the Catholic Church."

I have said this before on this blog, our diocese should be one that is pumping out Catholic priests, nuns, brothers and lay leaders like crazy. There is no reason why the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska should have more seminarians than us, considering they have a fraction of the Catholic population! We are an example of how dissent and poor leadership can ruin the local Church. And there is great potential in this diocese. (more on that later)

One thing I disagree with in the post is the take on Bishop Murphy's new bishops residence. He took over the top floor of a 3 story building that was being renovated. This renovation was going on before he ever got to Long Island and it involved many buildings on the grounds of St. Agnes Cathedral, which used to house a high school. It just makes sense for the Bishop to live here rather than in the $950,000 home that Bishop McGann lived in. This home had been left to McGann by his family and was located in the residential area of Rockville Centre. When the Diocese sells this thing, it will pay for the renovation or at least cover most of the cost. Maybe our bishops residence should not have expensive furniture and a large industrial kitchen for large dinner parties, but I don't see why not. Would decor by Ikea make us any holier?? I am sure the Bishop could have lived in the Cathedral rectory and maybe that would have been my choice, but this residence issue is not worth much debate. Bishop Murphy is not perfect, but he is the most orthodox Bishop this Diocese has ever had, at least in my lifetime. I have seen some improvement under Murphy and this improvement is what really causes Bob Keeler, Dick Ryan, Voice of the Faithful and the like to moan and complain.