Archbishop McKnight looks back on seven years at the helm of this diocese
If Archbishop Shawn McKnight could go to back to Feb. 6, 2018, the day he was ordained a bishop, and tell himself just one thing, what might it be?
“Listen intently to Archbishop Carlson’s homily!” Archbishop McKnight offered. “He promised that I would suffer, and I did. But that I would have deep joys, as well. And I did.”
Archbishop McKnight is getting ready to take up his new role as head of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.
In anticipation of his May 27 installation there, he thought back to the significance of his past seven years as head of the Jefferson City diocese.
His official motto as a bishop is “Gratias Agamus Domino” — “Let us give thanks to the Lord.”
If he could adopt a supplemental motto, it might be, “Ut Unum Sint” — “That they may all be one” (John 17:21).
“That’s fundamentally the job of the bishop, to preserve the communion of his local Church, of the clergy and the people,” Archbishop McKnight stated.
Obstacles to unity will always exist, “because we’re human,” he said.
“The internal divisions and strife that sometimes crop up — never forget that was present in the very early pages of the Acts of the Apostles, when the Church was brand-new,” he said.
Archbishop McKnight believes the extensive renovation and renewal of the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City is emblematic of efforts he made as bishop to help renew the ecclesial life of this diocese under the leadership of Pope Francis.
“Our promotion of pastoral planning and becoming a more synodal Church in that way, along with the stewardship way of life, and support and promotion of our Catholic school systems — those were all significant efforts,” Archbishop McKnight stated.
“Also significant, I think, was the time and attention that I paid to the youth of the diocese and to the promotion of more vocations to the Priesthood,” he said.
He hopes no one here will forget the Bible verse he chose to display prominently around the perimeter of the Cathedral’s interior:
“They devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2:42).
“It’s the importance of our understanding, our catechesis of the faith, loving the Gospel virtues in communal life, and the importance of the celebration of the Sacraments — and our need to do all of that well,” said Archbishop McKnight.
“So, with the communal dimension, we focused on Catholic Charities and the promotion of every parish as a center of charity and sanctuary of mercy,” he stated.
“We also tended to the importance of our Eucharistic celebrations and the Eucharistic revival with the renewal of the Cathedral and drawing attention to that aspect of Church life,” he said.
He was looking forward to addressing another priority that became clear to him over these past seven years: “the need for adequate catechetical formation for our lay ecclesial ministers.”
Namely, for parish youth ministers, catechists, directors of PSR programs, and Order of Christian Initiation of Adult team members and directors.
“We need QUALIFIED, TRAINED and CREDENTIALED laypeople to fulfill these important roles of teaching the Sacraments and the faith to our children, our youth and to adults,” said Archbishop McKnight.
“That was going to be my next major effort,” he stated. “The diocese needs to focus on ‘how do we help prepare the laity to fulfill these needs, especially in rural areas, where too much of the responsibility can fall on the pastor to do it all?’
It leaves him with a feeling similar to his recent tour of the construction site for the expansion of Helias Catholic High School in Jefferson City.
“I felt like Moses looking into the Promised Land but not being able to enter it!” he said.
“Starting over”
Archbishop McKnight tried to describe the conflicted emotions he’s been experiencing since finding out that Pope Francis, now deceased, has appointed him archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas.
“It’s my home state, but in many ways, it feels like I’m starting all over again,” he said.
Originally a priest of the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas, he didn’t have occasion to spend much time in the Kansas City archdiocese.
“I probably know the Diocese of Salina and maybe the Diocese of Dodge City better than the archdiocese,” he said, referring to the Sunflower State’s other two dioceses.
He will be the metropolitan archbishop of the Kansas region of the Church, just as Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanksi of St. Louis is the metropolitan archbishop in Missouri.
“The metropolitan archbishop has some responsibilities over the province of which he serves as a first among equals with the other bishops,” said Archbishop McKnight.
“He works with the bishops of the province in terms of common pastoral efforts and also obviously with our relations with government and advocacy,” he said.
Kansas’s state Capitol is in Topeka, which is part of the Kansas City archdiocese.
“And just as we have a Missouri Catholic Conference that helps educate voters and move public policy in a good direction here in Missouri, there is a Kansas Catholic Conference for the four dioceses of Kansas,” Archbishop McKnight stated.
He gave a quick description of the Second Vatican Council’s vision for the work of bishops in the Church.
“All bishops are in communion with each other, ‘under and with Peter’ — referring to the pope,” he said. — “That means that we share in the responsibility for the governance of the whole Church.
“Just like an individual priest within a diocese belongs to a presbyterate that has a bishop as its head, and they all bear responsibility for the governance of the whole diocese.”
The local bishop and the pope are the two persons always named in the Eucharistic Prayer — “because of their visible roles as hinges of unity for the Church,” the archbishop stated.
Simple gifts
Archbishop McKnight used to be a layperson, then a transitional deacon, then a priest.
In that time, he did come to understand some aspects of a bishop’s mission in the Church ... “in theory.”
He got to see more of it up-close while serving for five years as head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.
“I got to see how things were done behind closed doors and how the Church operates at that level, in the service of communion,” he said.
However, “there are a lot of practicalities and day-to-day management of a diocese that I had never even thought of, that I only found out about when I became a bishop,” he said.
Every day, he thanks God for “the gift of life, the gift of faith, the gift of my family, the gift of my vocation.”
One thing he knows he’ll miss about the Jefferson City diocese is that it’s small enough for him to be more present to the people.
The Kansas City archdiocese has about 180,000 Catholics, compared to about 76,000 in this diocese.
“So, they have more people and more parishes and more priests, but there’s just the same amount of me to go around,” he noted.
He’s found particular enjoyment from the largely rural character of this diocese and its beautiful smaller communities.
“I’ve appreciated the diversity of the types of parishes and people that we have, from rural to urban areas to the college centers that we have in Rolla, Columbia and Kirksville,” he stated.
“And of course, having spent all this time in working with the people and with priests, having gotten to know them, I do realize that I now have to start over yet again to learn this new mission,” he said.
Yet, he plans on taking with him everything he’s learned as bishop of Jefferson City.
“This diocese played a crucial role in my formation as a bishop,” he pointed out. “The Church of the Kansas City archdiocese owes the Diocese of Jefferson City a debt of gratitude for helping to improve me as a bishop, in whatever dimensions I have improved.
“Bishops receive the grace of Holy Orders, but we also have certain skills that have to be refined and developed — just like a priest in a parish,” he said.
Church on mission
Archbishop McKnight said that when he arrived in this part of Missouri seven years ago, he quickly discovered how committed many local parishes are to the faith that’s been handed down to them through the generations.
“They have long histories of which they’re very proud, and they have every right to be,” he noted.
While certainly a blessing, it can be somewhat mixed.
“The difficulty is the change that is demanded by our mission as a Church,” Archbishop McKnight pointed out. “Change is a very difficult thing for a lot of people. But, it’s what’s necessary for us to fulfill who we are.
“We are not a Church of a past era but the Church of today, that is ROOTED in the traditions of our faith,” he said.
He believes the biggest source of misunderstanding of his episcopacy here has been his promotion of stewardship as a way of life for every Catholic.
“As if it were some sort of money-making scheme for the Chancery,” he stated.
That’s not what it is at all.
“It’s all about the promotion of and the encouragement of what the Second Vatican Council called for, which is the lay participation in the life and mission of the Church,” he said. “Which means responsibility for it, as well.”
So, through changes in the Chancery in terms of personnel and hiring, the diocesan staff can now provide new administrative services that some parishes desperately need in order to remain viable.
“That kind of realignment of our diocesan resources hopefully helps relieve parishes of some of those burdens that they could not carry on their own, and frees them up to be more devoted at the ground level to the demands of evangelization,” the archbishop stated.
It has also involved promoting Catholic Charities of Central and Northern Missouri as a part of the identity of every Catholic in the diocese.
“It’s that whole idea that Pope Francis spelled out in ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ — ‘Joy of the Gospel’ — that parishes become sanctuaries of mercy,” said Archbishop McKnight. “That’s something we still have some work left to do, and it’s not something we can fall away from.
“We will improve as a Church and in fulfilling our mission the more we’re able to become the kind of Church that Jesus really wants us to be,” he stated.
Namely: “that we understand ourselves as missionaries! And that our parish communities should be perceived and in reality BE centers of charity and sanctuaries of mercy.
“So that all who are in need know that they can come to a Catholic church to find help, to find healing, and to find reconciliation with God and one another,” said Archbishop McKnight.
“Tend the flock”
While in fourth grade, Archbishop McKnight chose Peter as his Confirmation name.
“Even at that age, I was taken by the fact that St. Peter was a fisherman and was the one willing to leap into the water and take the first plunge and be the first to quickly profess who Jesus was,” the archbishop recalled.
“But at the same time, he was all too human, and in some ways, that resonated with me, too,” he said.
“As with anyone being converted to the Gospel, there’s that initial fervor, but there also has to be consistent commitment. So, for me, I guess, it’s recognizing Peter’s humanity but then seeing the greater PURPOSE in his humanity.”
Archbishop McKnight offered some advice to the bishop, yet to be named, who will succeed him in Jefferson City: “Be patient.”
Likewise, he asked the people of this diocese to be patient with the new bishop when he arrives.
He also asked for ongoing prayers “for the gift of patience for me!”
The archbishop promised to continue praying for the people who were first to help form him as a bishop.
His prayer: “Tend the flock in your midst” (1 Peter 5:2).
“Keep them close to you and lead them in the right direction,’ he said.
