Beware the bishops seeking fame

Dec 22, 2023

By Katie Prejean McGrady
A few months ago, sitting in a restaurant with a bishop, sharing an appetizer as we waited for our meals, I asked my friend what he thought was the greatest challenge facing the episcopacy at this moment.

He didn’t hesitate with his answer. “Too many of us want to be famous.”

“Famous? Who would want that…?”

And he replied quickly again. “Those who want more power. When you’re well known, you can influence and control more.”

Our conversation shifted after that, back to lighter fare, catching up about life, our families, the busy schedules we both had for the coming months.

His answer struck me then, and has been bouncing in my head for weeks.
“Too many of us want to be famous.” That’s a pretty striking claim to make about the American episcopacy. But, perhaps, a very correct accusation to level against the bishops of the United States at the end of this very odd and dramatic year.

Infecting hearts and clouding minds
Some bishops take to social media to find that fame. Others, YouTube. Still others, podcasts and radio. Some bishops write their articles, posting them on diocesan websites and publishing columns in the quickly dying diocesan newspapers.

I’m sure they wonder if anyone is reading what they have to say. They issue statements, and when they meet twice a year, the bishops make clear their stance on certain key issues, and the press releases are reported upon, the think pieces posted online, and then back to their chanceries they return, the minutiae of the job awaiting them.

Maybe it’s that minutiae that some of our shepherds are running from, hoping their name recognition will save them from the often quite boring, boilerplate, ordinary work of managing parishes, priests, and people in a territorial area they oversee.

Maybe it’s the hope that fame will allow them to wield greater influence on culture, shaping the conversations happening in the public square.

Maybe the desire to be known well is a true call they feel within their hearts. Bishops are teachers after all, their job is to clearly proclaim and articulate the faith for all to hear, and having a public platform could only help with that work.

But here was a bishop, telling me he saw this “desire for fame” to be a challenge for his brother bishops, a sickness that was infecting hearts and clouding minds, distracting these shepherds from the flock right in front of them as they seek crowds of sheep far beyond their jurisdiction or reach.

And the sickness, it seems, is contagious. Because as some shepherds in our Church have sought the trappings and influence of fame and the popularity of clicks and views happily doled out in online spaces, we common lay folk have happily lapped it up.

As the bishop becomes famous, he has only been able to do so because of adoring fans (often not even within his own diocese) who have given him the illusion of this popularity and reach. It can make one drunk with power, as they watch crowds in person and online fall over themselves to watch, listen, see, and fawn over the good bishop who has put himself in front of the camera and behind the microphone.

The brave new world of digital communication
This isn’t to say bishops should not publicly speak or use the digital means widely available to instruct the faithful or invite people to love Jesus. In this brave new world of digital communication and online content, we need our bishops in these spaces. But when a bishop becomes consumed by that digital space, and seemingly only works within it, he has lost the plot, and fallen prey to the enticing tendrils of fame and influence. When he cares more about the retweets and less about the paperwork on his desk, he’s ignoring his responsibility to lead his diocese. When he wants people to know his name more than he cares to know the names of his own people, he has drifted from his duty. And this, as my bishop friend pointed out as we shared an appetizer of fried green tomatoes, is their greatest challenge.

Why might that be?
Because a bishop who thinks more about his name recognition and less about the names of his sheep is a bishop who is far from Jesus. Plain and simple.

Jesus spoke to the large crowds, but then sought out the one who was hurting within it. Jesus wielded influence over the public, but then eschewed the trappings of power dangled before Him by those who held it. Jesus saw what was at hand, and focused on it. And the bishops in our Church, who have too frequently become distracted by the invitations to fame and the enticing power that comes with it, are becoming unfocused when they live online and caring for digital followers rather than real people.

Perhaps at the end of the year, when it seems bishops are in the headlines for their hot takes and their latest digital offering and their seeming punishments coming from Rome, we could pray for them, to be reminded of the work they’ve been ordained to do: care for the flock they’ve been handed, and focus on them first. --LCI (https:// international.la-croix.com/)