An odd duck, that Bishop Finn.
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As a new coadjutor bishop, Finn made a round of visitations to the diocese’s five regions. In homilies he spoke of what he thought was important.
“In this increasingly secular society, a contraceptive/abortion culture has led to the sad deterioration of families. We as Catholics must focus on keeping married love together, with openness to children. This openness to children is an antidote to societal poisons,” he told a gathering at the St. Joseph co-cathedral, according to reporting in The Catholic Key.
Catholic education should be thoroughly and unashamedly Catholic, he said. Catholic schools should teach that salvation is achieved only through Jesus. Whether students are Catholic or not, the schools must teach Catholic doctrine and promote the rosary, the Stations of the Cross, the veneration of the saints and the use of sacramentals, such as, wearing religious medals, he said.
Families should attend Mass together regularly and make frequent confession. The themes would be repeated again and again.
At a Mass for Catholic school teachers and principals for the school year beginning in August 2004, Finn — still coadjutor then — admonished the teachers to help their students resist the “culture of death” and the “age of relativism.” He said: “There are objective truths. There is right and wrong. Holy Mother Church is our mother who loves us and she knows best. Catholic schools must be places where these moral truths are taught without variation and without ambiguity for the sake of souls and salvation.”
Finn’s first public liturgical act as ordinary was to lead a Corpus Christi procession in midtown Kansas City. A couple of weeks later at the Kansas City Catholic Conference, he talked about how thrilling it was to carry Christ in a monstrance through the city streets at the head of 2,000-strong procession that included altar boys in cassocks and surplices and Knights of Columbus in full regalia.
“It was a beautiful expression … a great display of faith. It brought Christ into the world in a visible way,” Finn said. “We lifted him up in the streets of our city.”
Freak!
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