John Carroll University?s Institute of Catholic Studies hosted ?An Evening with Bishop Nelson Perez? as the last lecture in its 2017-2018 series on April 8 at the university. The bishop also celebrated the weekly 9 p.m. Mass in St. Francis Chapel after his talk.
Paul Murphy, institute director, provided a brief background of the bishop, who was born of Cuban immigrant parents in Miami, Florida, and raised in New Jersey. He talked about the bishop?s extensive pastoral experience and how he is responsible for scores of parishes as well as being active with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, where he chairs the Encuentro program that works with Hispanic Catholics.
?He also keeps a sharp eye on administrative needs and has a warm sense of humor,? Murphy said. ?He seems to embody Pope Francis? idea of a Church that goes out. It seems Bishop Perez is out everywhere,? he quipped, noting the hundreds of visits the bishop has made throughout the Diocese of Cleveland in his first six months as its leader.
Bishop Perez shared his discernment journey to the priesthood, explaining how he had hoped to minister in Cuba, his parent? homeland, after ordination, so he began his priestly formation with the Salesians in Puerto Rico.
Since most of their seminarians were teenagers and the bishop already had a college degree, he would attend morning prayer with them, go off to work and return to the seminary for evening prayer. After a few months, the rector called him into his office and said they wanted to send him to study theology and gave him a choice of five places. They settled on Philadelphia.
?The first time I saw it was when I moved in,? he said.
A few months later, the seminary rector called him to the office.
?I thought I was in trouble,? he quipped. Instead, he learned that Philadelphia?s Cardinal Archbishop John Krol, a Cleveland native and former diocesan auxiliary bishop, asked if he would consider remaining in the archdiocese after ordination since there was a need for Spanish-speaking priests to minister to the growing Hispanic population. ?And just like that, I was traded like a baseball player,? he said, drawing laughter from the crowd.
?I?m thrilled to be in Cleveland and have been visiting parishes, schools, universities and more. I?m happy to share my thoughts on Church and the Church in Cleveland. As for my plan, I don?t have one. I will listen, watch and learn,? he said, adding that ?God is writing straight with crooked lines? as his ministry unfolds and the Church continues its growth.
He talked about how the Church was emerging from the Reformation, but had begun closing in on itself. ?Priests ?said? Mass and people didn?t understand the language (Latin), so they prayed the rosary.? When the papacy of Pope St. John XXIII began, he said the Church needed to go back to its roots, ?to be not only a Church that goes in, but a Church that goes out.? The pope convened the Second Vatican Council, which was a tumultuous time, he said, but it began the process of ?opening the windows of the Church because it had gotten stuffy inside,? Bishop Perez said.
?The Church moves slowly, like a turtle, but there is a wisdom to that,? he added.
The bishop also discussed how evangelism developed from Vatican II. In fact, he was asked to begin an evangelism institute in Philadelphia. ?I asked the archbishop what that meant since I had never heard that word in the seminary and he told me it was for me to figure it out,? Bishop Perez said. He purchased a copy of Blessed Pope Paul VI?s exhortation on evangelism. ?He talked about how evangelism is the deepest identity of the Church,? the bishop said. ?It?s the reason the Church exists.? Because of this emphasis on evangelism, Bishop Perez said a new vibrancy developed in the Church and when the papacy of Pope St. John Paul II began, he introduced it to the world.
?He (Pope John Paul II) was an actor and a writer. He modeled what the Church should look like and he made the world his stage,? the bishop said. He talked about seeing the pope in New York as a teenage and several times later in life. ?He showed us what a Church should look like
