Bishop’s Inaugural Homily Promises To Put Christ First

Bishop Thomas Drumpf, in his inaugural homily, promised to make his new diocese great again and to put Christ first.

 As he took the oath of bishopric on Friday, Drumpf vowed that “the forgotten Catholic men and women of our diocese will be forgotten no longer.”

“January 20th, 2017, will be remembered as the day the parishioners became the bishop of this diocese again,” Drumpf told the crowd in his speech from the steps of the Cathedral.

Below is a transcript of his homily:

We are now joined in a great effort to rebuild our diocese and to restore its promise for all the faithful. The faithful want great Catholic schools for their children and sound liturgies for themselves and homilies on doctrine. These are the just and reasonable demands of a faithful people.

But for too many of our diocesan churches, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in bad liturgies; ugly churches scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our diocese; an education system which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge about the Faith; and political correctness that has stolen too many Sunday mornings and robbed our diocese of so many unrealized potential vocations.

This Catholic carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every Catholic church of the diocese.  From this day forward, a new vision will govern our diocese.  From this moment on, it’s going to be Jesus Christ first. Every decision on the liturgy, on doctrine, on financial appeals, on homiletics will be made to increase a true love of Christ and His passion on the cross.

We must protect our young families from the ravages of other denominations…stealing our youth, ridiculing our saints, and destroying our devotions. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

I will fight for Christ with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let Him down. Catholicism will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our doctrine. We will bring back the rosary. We will bring back the saints. We will bring back our vocations.  We will get our people married in the Church and back to Mass…rebuilding our diocese with faithful sacraments.

We will follow two simple rules: believe that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist and have a true love for His mother, Mary.

At the bedrock of our episcopacy will be a total allegiance to Jesus Christ, and through our loyalty to Him, we will rediscover our love for the Eucharist. We will no longer accept priests who are all talk and no action…constantly talking about conscience but never teaching Catholic doctrine about mortal sin and confession. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the holy hour of action to support faithful Catholics. Do not let anyone tell you it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight of the Holy Spirit. We will not fail. True Catholic families will thrive and prosper again. And yes, together, we will make Christ great again. Thank you. God bless you. And God bless our diocese.