Well, this is something you don’t see every day: news that an American bishop is going to perform a valuable civic duty, and spend time doing what so many of us dread.

I refer, of course, to jury duty.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Not even bishops can escape jury duty.

Diocese of Pittsburgh Bishop David A. Zubik was selected Tuesday to serve on a jury for a home invasion case in Allegheny County court.

Zubik reported in the morning to the jury room in the County Courthouse in a typical priest’s white collar with a black suit, but defense attorney John Knorr said he recognized him right away.

“After Zubik left the interview table, one of the other attorneys asked me what I thought,” Knorr said. “I said, ‘Well, we’re looking for fairness, not forgiveness.’ I think he’s fine.”

Zubik, also known as juror No. 9, must report to Common Pleas Judge Kathleen Durkin’s courtroom before the start of the trial Thursday. Former Steelers coach Bill Cowher and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl — when he was a councilman — also have served on Durkin’s juries.

Zubik’s case involves two men, Steve Ashby, 19, and Ryan Whittington, 20, and a woman, Taneesha Middleton, 22, charged with breaking into a Duquesne home.

Middleton is accused of knocking on the door and asking to use the phone. Authorities say that when a man answered the door, Ashby and Whittington forced their way in and pistol-whipped him before robbing him. Ashby is accused of forcing the man’s girlfriend to perform oral sex on him.

Defense attorney James Sheets said the attorneys asked Zubik the same general questions they ask all jurors. A juror questionnaire asks, for example, if any religious, moral or ethical beliefs would prevent the prospective juror from sitting on a criminal case and reaching a fair verdict.

“The bishop answered no to that question,” Sheets said. “What someone does for a living factors in, but as a whole we want fairness. The bishop is a citizen of Allegheny County like anyone else.”

Mike Manko, spokesman for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., said that prosecutors aren’t opposed to priests serving on juries and that Zubik’s jury service “is a great example to the community.”

Several priests from the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh have served on juries, but Zubik is the first bishop in recent memory to be seated, said the Rev. Ron Lengwin, the diocesan spokesman.

Zubik’s predecessor, Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl, was called for jury duty during his 18 years in Pittsburgh but not selected, Lengwin said.

Other diocesan heads haven’t been as cooperative with the courts.

Cardinal John Joseph O’Connor, who headed the Archdiocese of New York from 1984 to 2000, used to forbid priests from serving on juries, said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

“His argument was that being on a jury was participating in an act of government and the clergy were not supposed to be involved in government,” said Reese.