(Reporter LIVE)
The news may have come as a surprise for bishop-elect Lucia, but he knows what he wants to do with the church and the diocese.
(REPORTER)
There’s a new bishop in town.
And even though the news may have come as a surprise.
(DOUGLAS LUCIA)
“I had no clue whatsoever that my life was gonna change so dramatically.”
(REPORTER)
Bishop-elect Douglas Lucia says he’s ready for the job.
(DOUGLAS LUCIA)
“Hopefully people will find in the church a home and that’s what I want to build.”
(REPORTER)
His main mission is to make the church more hospitable.
(DOUGLAS LUCIA)
“I guess that’s my big thing. That people have access to the church. That they don’t see it as closed. The doors are open.”
(REPORTER)
But he knows it’s no easy task.
(DOUGLAS LUCIA)
“I’ve seen the pain in perished communities, I’ve seen people’s lives totally destroyed.”
(REPORTER)
For more than thirty years he has seen the damage caused by clergy abuse cases and he wants Syracuse residents to know the doors to his church are always open.
(DOUGLAS LUCIA)
(“I just wanna be a healing presence. I want them to know that they can come to me. I want to hear them. I want to be there for them.”)
(REPORTER)
His first appointment with the community was a mass at noon accompanied by the past Bishop Robert Cunningham and Syracuse residents seemed excited for the new Bishop.
(MARY CUSANO)
“I am so excited. I can’t believe he is here. Bring more people to the church, not because they have to go to church, but to bring them to help out in the community, help out with the poor, help out with the people who are struggling.”
(Reporter LIVE)
Bishop Lucia did day that first he wanted to make sure that he got to know the Syracuse community. In fact, this afternoon he was supposed to visit a couple of local non-profits. I hope the weather didn’t ruin it for them.
By Fernando Garcia-Franceschini SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) —Douglas Lucia was appointed by Pope Francis as the 11th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. He will now succeed Bishop Robert Cunningham, who announced on his 75th birthday that he would retire.
In a press conference held at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Syracuse, Bishop-elect Lucia said he was not expecting the news at all.
“Today I stand before all of you in shock over the occasion that gathers us together,” Lucia said.
Lucia expressed his plans of taking things “one step at a time,” but that he wants to make sure the church is a welcoming and inclusive place for everyone in the Syracuse community.
“Hopefully people will find in the church a home and that’s what I want to build,” he said. “I know that we are not going to agree on everything, but just because we don’t agree on it doesn’t mean we’re part of the same family.”
However, he is aware that this is not an easy task considering how clergy abuse scandals have been at the forefront of the Catholic Church in recent years. Lucia mentioned that he knew a priest that was dismissed because of these type of allegations and he does not want this to happen in Syracuse. He emphasized that he wants people to know they can come to him and to his church both in times of happiness and times of need.
Lucia was ordained as a priest in 1989 and served at the Diocese of Ogdensburg. His ordination into the Syracuse Diocese will happen at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at a date still undetermined.
