Bishop Murphy plans to reshape diocese

The above link is to a good article in Newsday on Bishop Murphy but does not include many details on how he will reshape the Diocese. I have said before I think Bishop Murphy has been a great Bishop and his 10 years have pushed or pulled the Diocese of Rockville Centre in the right direction:

• Pushing Telecare to have more Catholic programming
• Starting the Tommorrow's Hope Foundation for Catholic schools
• Insisting parishes balance their budgets
• Being much more generous towards the Traditional Latin Mass
• Reforming the Pastoral Formation Institute
• Encouraging faithful and orthodox programs
• Overseeing some changes in the seminary

The DRVC did not at all welcome Murphy openly and many have been trying to block his efforts at leading us forward so it is amazing that Murphy has been able to get as much done as he has. The truth is so much more could have been done over these past 10 years but the Diocese had many entrenched people with very different ideas than Murphy and this has made reform tough. This Newsday article has a couple of revelations:

• "Murphy said with satisfaction that the number of parishes running deficits is down to 24 from 83 two years ago." I wish the Diocese would publish this info somewhere, I think it is good to know the financial health of the parishes. Murphy was quoted once as saying the Church sometimes takes on too much and I totally agree. We have to be fiscally prudent and that often means cutting back and cutting out many things. We simply do not have the numbers of people and the money that was around in previous decades.

• "The bishop also is weighing a shift at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington. Starting next year, seminarians could be sent to St. Joseph's Seminary, also known as Dunwoodie, in Yonkers, leaving the Huntington facility as a pastoral training center for ordained priests and lay people." While it has been public knowledge for some time that the seminaries would form some sort of collaboration, this is the first time I have seen it mentioned that the seminarians would be sent to Dunwoodie. Overall, I think this is good. Immaculate Conception has never had a great reputation compared to other seminaries as far as orthodoxy was concerned and this might be just what is needed.