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What brought the Most Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades to Fort Wayne?
"A U-Haul truck," Dee Dee Dahm said.
Dahm is in a position to know. The member of St. Mary’s and St. Jude Catholic churches has spent the past several weeks preparing the residence of the incoming bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.
The newly redecorated house is part of the welcome Rhoades will receive as he takes the reins today of a spiritual dominion that includes nearly 160,000 northern Indiana Catholics.
Rhoades, 52, bishop of the Diocese of Harrisburg in central Pennsylvania since 2004, will be installed today as the local diocese’s ninth bishop during a 2 p.m. Mass in Fort Wayne’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
He succeeds John M. D’Arcy, 77, who has served as bishop since 1985 and is retiring.
Dahm said Rhoades already has settled into his Fort Wayne home, formerly the rectory of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in the 400 block of Madison Street, by filling shelves with his copious personal library.
"There were only two criteria," she said of renovations completed with the help of Marilyn Steckbeck. "One was to make it masculine, and two, to have plenty of bookcases."
In an interview by e-mail, Rhoades said he plans to make getting to know the diocese his first priority. It sprawls over 14 counties from Fort Wayne to South Bend and includes more than 80 parishes.
"I need to learn about the needs first before beginning new initiatives," he said, calling himself "very consultive" when it comes to decision-making.
"I listen to the views and advice of others and then arrive at decisions. As bishop, I appreciate very much the input of others, particularly the advisory bodies that church law has established: the Presbyteral Council, the Pastoral Council and the Finance Council.
"After listening and consulting, and, of course, praying, I then am more confident in making decisions."
The bishop already has met some of his new neighbors, which include the Ave Maria House, a church-sponsored daytime shelter for the homeless next door to his new home, and the St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen across the street.
"He’s already been by to visit with my mother and he met a few clients," said Ave Maria’s house manager Mike Carpenter, referring to the program’s founder, Dottie Carpenter, 77. He said she was "very impressed with him."
Mike Carpenter added: "We’re excited he’s living here and that he chose to live right downtown, with all the things that go with living downtown." He grinned: "It’ll put us on our best behavior."
At the soup kitchen Monday, volunteer coordinator Carolyn Ransom, reading about the new bishop in the diocese’s weekly newspaper, Today’s Catholic, said it was "awesome" he was going to be living nearby.
She hadn’t met Rhoades yet, but hoped she’d meet him soon – and that his presence would spotlight the soup kitchen’s work.
"We’re hoping he can come in and make soup with us," she said, as volunteers handed brown grocery sacks containing a free cup of steaming vegetable soup, a quart of milk and bread through a nearby window where about 10 people waited in line.
"I think that says a lot about him, that he wants to live here," added soup kitchen volunteer Jane Czech, 80.
In his e-mail, Rhoades declined to delineate the diocese’s greatest challenge.
"I first need to learn about the diocese before I can identify specific challenges," he wrote. "From what I have learned so far, this diocese is in very good shape, thanks to the wonderful leadership of Bishop D’Arcy."
Still, Rhoades said he expects that "promoting priestly vocations will certainly be a priority" here, just as it was in Harrisburg.
The Diocese of Harrisburg has about 30 men studying for the priesthood, up from 11 when Rhoades began. The Fort-Wayne-South Bend Diocese has 22, having averted a shortage of priests by closing or combining some parishes and bringing priests from several other countries, including Ireland, Sri Lanka and several nations in Africa.
Rhoades said his experience at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Md., should place him in good stead in encouraging men to enter religious life. He served as its rector from 1997 to 2004, having taught at the seminary beginning in 1995. Seminary rectors provide spiritual guidance and recommendations for priests-to-be.
In an interview last week, D’Arcy said the new bishop shares his views, enunciated in 2005 by the Vatican, that men who engage in homosexual behavior, have "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" or who "support the so-called ‘gay culture’ " not be admitted to seminary.
Rhoades said in the e-mail interview that his seminary experience and work as vice president of St. Mary’s University should be beneficial to in his relationship with the Catholic universities in this diocese.
Born in Mahanoy City in northeast Pennsylvania’s coal region, Rhoades moved to Lebanon in south-central Pennsylvania as a child. He attended Mount St. Mary’s University before graduating from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary near Philadelphia.
Rhoades’ theological studies were done at North American College and Pontifical Gregorian University, both in Rome, from 1979 to 1983.
He returned to Rome’s Gregorian University in 1985 for advanced degrees in theology and canon law.
After he was ordained a priest in Lebanon in 1983 by Harrisburg’s then-Auxiliary Bishop William Keeler, now a cardinal, Rhoades served St. Patrick parish in nearby York from 1983 to 1985.
In 1988, he returned from Rome to be assistant chancellor under then-Bishop Keeler and as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi parish in Harrisburg, where a majority of parishioners were Hispanic, of Puerto Rican or Mexican origin.
While in the Harrisburg diocese, Rhoades also ministered in three Spanish-speaking apostolates, including one for migrant workers in the apple orchards of Pennsylvania’s Adams County, and as an interim pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe parish in Lebanon.
"I love the Hispanic cultures and consider the Hispanic presence a blessing to the church in our country. My own life has been enriched by the faith and devotion of the Hispanic parishioners to whom I ministered," Rhoades said by e-mail.
Asked about what he saw as Rhoades’ assets, D’Arcy last week mentioned that Rhoades studied Spanish in Spain during a summer break while studying in Rome.
"He could have traveled, gone around Europe, which would have been fine, but he chose to learn Spanish, and why? So he could evangelize, and when he came back he immediately began to say Mass with immigrants," D’Arcy said.
"This is a man who wants to be among the poor, and I think he will make an exemplary bishop," D’Arcy said.
Rhoades, whose parents Charles and Mary Rhoades are deceased, has a sister, Robin McCracken, and a brother, Charles Rhoades. He says he enjoys being "Uncle Kevin" to his five nieces and nephews.
Besides reading, he enjoys watching and playing sports, including basketball, tennis and racquetball, hiking and walking.
Dahm says she hopes the newly repainted house, with its calming beige tones and comfy leather sofa in the living room, will serve the bishop well. Rhoades moved himself in, with the help of a friend, and all the boxes were unpacked and the pictures hung by Monday, she said.
"It’s not ostentatious, but it’s very nice," said Dahm, adding that it was an honor to help.
"You could tell he deeply appreciated it, and we were very happy to make it homey and comfortable to welcome him to Fort Wayne."
