UPCOMING
Gallup to get its bishop next week at ceremony
Bishop-elect Wall to be ordained, installed as fourth bishop of Gallup
By Andrew Junker | April 14, 2009 | The Catholic Sun
While all the tickets to Bishop-elect James S. Wall’s April 23 episcopal ordination and installation in Gallup, N.M., have been handed out, it doesn’t mean Valley Catholics can’t experience the ceremony.
Skyline Productions — the same crew that broadcasts a weekly Mass from Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral — will broadcast the liturgy live on KAZT-TV channel 7, Cox Cable 13. The broadcast begins at 1 p.m. Arizona time, and the Mass will also be streamed live at the Diocese of Gallup’s Web site, www.dioceseofgallup.org.
Even still, there is a sizeable number of local Catholics making the drive up for the installation Mass, which only attests to the popularity of the former pastor and diocesan vicar for priests.
“He has such a servant’s heart,” said St. Timothy parishioner Karen Ord of the bishop-elect. “He’s very humble. The people in Gallup are so blessed to have him. They’re getting a wonderful man and priest and bishop now.”
That sentiment has been echoed by many priests and laity alike in the final run up to the ordination Mass.
“We’re going to miss him,” Judicial Vicar Fr. Chris Fraser said of his close friend. “They’re getting one of our best priests.”
At a March 31 Mass and reception for the bishop-elect at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted encouraged his soon-to-be peer and thanked the Wall family for raising him well.
“We’re grateful to you for the way that you have helped your son grow in his faith and grow in his desire to help others,” the bishop told Joan Wall.
For her part, Wall said her son’s appointment has left her feeling “very humble.”
“I certainly wouldn’t write a book on how to raise children,” she said. “I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, and to think that the Lord let me raise him and then He planned for him to be a bishop and shepherd all these people — that just blows my mind.”
One of six children, Bishop-elect Wall grew up in the East Valley. His father coached football, and the bishop-elect was an avid athlete and sports fan. Looking back, his siblings saw some of God’s providential hand in the making of this bishop.
“He’s patient with things and he’s compassionate,” said Craig Wall, brother to the bishop-elect. “I think that’s pretty substantial and nothing to overlook. It takes a lot to be patient.”
One thing Bishop-elect Wall became known for in Phoenix was his ability to encourage men to follow their vocation into the priesthood.
Fr. Kilian McCaffrey met with a then newly ordained Fr. Wall when he first entered the seminary. The bishop-elect was serving as parochial vicar for St. Theresa Parish at the time, and Fr. McCaffrey remembers him saying, “Enjoy what the Lord is calling you to.”
“I hope he is now enjoying what the Lord is calling him to, this special office in the line of the Apostles,” Fr. McCaffrey said.
Craig Wall believes his brother will continue to inspire vocations in the Diocese of Gallup, where there are currently no seminarians.
“One of his passions in the diocese is for vocations to come from people in the diocese,” Wall said. “He’s going to see the potential vocations and his recognizing that is going to draw it out of them.”
Though Bishop-elect Wall will begin serving his new diocese April 23, his ties to the Phoenix Diocese won’t be cut entirely. As bishop of one of the three dioceses in Arizona, he’ll continue to work closely with Bishop Olmsted and Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson on public policy.
And even beyond that, he promised to keep his former city in his prayers.
“I will always remember Phoenix,” Bishop-elect Wall said. “And I’ll keep the people of Phoenix in a special place in my heart.”
