Three weeks from the date of this issue, Nov. 1, 2024, this newspaper will have a new publisher, and the archdiocese will have its new archbishop. The columns of this and of next week are inspired by this historic occurrence.

The parish is the place where we usually start our life of faith at our baptism and where, along the steps of our lives, we continue the journey of faith, perhaps in that same parish of baptism, or, more likely, in one, two, (or so sociologists tell us) more like five or six parishes by the time we reach middle age!

In those "in-between years," we'll receive other sacraments -- confirmation, Holy Eucharist, and penance in the parish where we live and worship regularly. That parish becomes our "church home," just as does the city, town, or neighborhood where we live.

Ties between each of us and our parish develop and strengthen the more we are involved and the more it becomes our home.

But we are "Catholics," which means universal. No, we are not universalists. But we have ties and connections through the parish to others. Most of them, we'll never meet, never know, and never encounter, even if they live in the parish next door. They are, with us, fellow Catholics.

Your parish may have recently welcomed a missionary for a mission appeal. This is one of the most obvious reminders of the global faith we share with others.

Some readers have children who attend Catholic schools in another parish. They might be involved in some school activity at that parish's church, but when they go home, they're back in their own parish.

If someone is confined to a long-term care facility or in a hospital, it's likely they meet priests, pastoral caregivers, or extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion from another parish.

Yet, we are all Catholics.

There is a single individual in each diocese -- a portion of the people of God entrusted to his care -- who makes these relationships "beyond the parish" possible and Catholic -- that's the bishop.

At every Mass, in every Catholic Church around the globe, we are reminded of this global church when we hear the name of the present pope and the present bishop of the diocese where we are attending Mass.

If you happen to be in an Eastern Catholic Church, you will hear another name after the pope's that will be the "father" of that church -- the patriarch, and then the bishop's name.

Those two or three names for whom we pray and with whom we are in communion, not only during Mass but throughout our lives, keep that "catholic" reality of our faith alive.

Following those names, there is usually some mention of those of our fellow Catholics "scattered across the globe" though "nameless" to us -- they are known to God as we are.

All of those named and unnamed may appear in one or another of the petitions of the General Intercessions.

While being united with all those living Catholics, we also can count those who have arrived home -- the saints. So, we'll always hear the name of Mary, the Mother of God, and perhaps the saint of the day or the patron saint of the place where we are at Mass.

And, either in a specific way by the mention of a name or generally for all of those gone "before us marked with the sign of faith," we pray for our deceased relatives and friends. These, too, might be mentioned in the General Intercessions.

To our fellow parishioners, to the ones in next door parishes, or those across the globe, to the saints and to those who have died, we are all one Catholic family.

And it is through the bishop of our diocese that this all happens.

He is the "high priest." He either celebrates the Eucharist or causes it to be celebrated by ordaining priests. He orders the faith life, the educational activity, charitable, and social work, and many other means of reaching not only those of his Catholic family but others also "entrusted to his care."

Archbishop Henning will be named in all the Masses celebrated anywhere in our archdiocese after 2 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2024. It's not just a matter of a rule or requirement, though it is that. It's because the bishop is, by Christ's command and choice, the one who is the link between you and me, between and among all of us living and deceased of Christ's faithful.

So, whenever you hear his name prayed in the Eucharistic Prayer, certainly pray for him and the awesome responsibility he has. Pray also for sisters and brothers in your parish and in our church, to whom we are united through him.

Next week, a look at the Oct. 31, 2024, Installation Mass.