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Barres named fifth bishop of RVC Diocese

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Expressing his desire to bring together a diverse community and spread the mission of the Catholic Church, Bishop John Barres was introduced as the fifth bishop of the Rockville Centre Diocese at the Monsignor Kelly Parish Center near St. Agnes Cathedral on Dec. 9.

Barres, who was the bishop of Allentown, Pa., for the last 7½ years, will succeed Bishop William Murphy in leading one of the country’s largest dioceses, with 1.5 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Murphy, 76, served as the bishop since 2001. The Code of Canon Law states that diocesan bishops must submit their resignations to the pope when they reach 75 years of age.

“It is my deep conviction that he will be a bishop for all of us without exception,” Murphy said of Barres. “He has shared with me his love of youth and his care for the elderly. He has a keen sense of parish life and has a special expertise in education.”

Murphy noted Barres’s deep and abiding “love for the poor,” saying that he would continue to lend full support to Catholic Charities as well as local Catholic hospitals and parish outreach programs.

The 56-year-old Barres was appointed by Pope Francis and named bishop by Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the U.S. apostolic nuncio, in Washington, D.C. on Friday. Barres will assume leadership during a Mass of Installation at St. Agnes on Jan. 31.

The connection between Barres and the community began almost immediately. He proudly entered the room side by side with a beaming Murphy, stopping to chat with 15 students from St. Agnes Cathedral School on his way to the lectern.

He asked the children their names, shook their hands and inquired about their interests. Barres told the basketball players about his days as a point guard at Princeton and the musicians in the group that their performances were a sign of praising God.

“I felt like I could relate to what he was saying about what he was like when he was a child and what he said about how he would play sports and how it really helped him in his religious days,” said seventh-grader Brooke Cassatto.

Barres was eloquent and engaging during his introductory speech. He joked about his basketball abilities before expressing how “humbled and moved” he was by his appointment.

“As your bishop, I very much look forward to serving each one of you, each one of our ecumenical and interreligious brothers and sisters and every single person who lives in the Diocese of Rockville Centre,” he said. “I look forward to experiencing and celebrating with you the cultural diversity of our diocese.”

A native of Larchmont, N.Y., Barres recalled trips to Jones Beach with his family when he was a child and Nassau Coliseum with his youth basketball team to watch Hall of Famer Julius Erving play for the New York Nets of the now-defunct American Basketball Association during the 1970s.

His father worked for the bishop at the Propagation of the Faith in New York City, and Barres became an ordained priest of the Diocese of Wilmington in 1989. He began his priesthood as an associate pastor at churches in Newark, N.J. and Wilmington, Del. After further study in Rome, he served as vice-chancellor and then chancellor of the Wilmington Diocese.

Pope John Paul II named him a “Chaplain to His Holiness” in July 2000, with the title of “Monsignor.” Pope Benedict XVI named him a “Prelate of Honor” in November 2005.

“I have a passion for parish life and will always have the heart of a parish priest,” he said. “I am looking forward to experiencing the vibrant, welcoming new evangelization parishes of the diocese and reaching out together as Eucharistic riches of the divine mercy to the wonderful and beautiful inactive Catholics in our midst.”

Barres was ordained a bishop and installed as the fourth bishop of Allentown on July 30, 2009. He was the first priest ordained a bishop in the Diocese of Allentown.

There, he called on all parishes to establish their own Parish Pastoral Councils, and he supported efforts of pastors, teachers and parents to strengthen Catholic schools, according to the Rockville Centre Diocese’s announcement.

Barres became emotional as he thanked the priests and parishioners of Allentown, at one point needing almost 20 seconds to compose himself during his thought.

“You will always be in my heart, my memories, my prayers and my Masses as I remember our days of holiness and mission together,” he said as his voice slightly cracked.

Barres addressed the St. Agnes students on several occasions during his speech, looking right at them as he spoke.

“I am ecstatic about your futures in Jesus Christ and the way you, in the words of Pope Francis, shake up the church and the world with your enthusiasm and desire to dedicate your lives to Jesus and the mission of the Catholic church of the world,” he told them. “I cannot wait to meet you and I cannot wait to serve you.”

Barres said a short-term goal is to “really listen deeply to the people of God here” and to do so in a compassionate way and that his greatest hope is for everyone to be open to the Holy Spirit and to be “raised to a heroic level of sanctity.”

Murphy said he will continue to act as a consultant whenever Barres needs him and is looking into other endeavors next year.

“I’m very excited that he’s coming,” he said of Barres. “I understand when John got a little emotional. I’m going to miss it, but I couldn’t have been surrounded by better people.”

Scott Brinton contributed to this story.