Rev. Fr. Lopito Hiteroza, the Shrine Rector of Our Lady of Aranzazu with Bp. Francis de Leon of Diocese of Antipolo. Photo: Jane Hernaez / MPIM
Every 3 or 5 years, the Bishop visits the parishes in his diocese. The very word “BISHOP” means “to oversee” (his flock). Now these visits to the best of his ability as administrator of his bishopric constitutes his overseeing job. These visits are staggered over at most, a year. He sees to it that everything is going as regularly well as expected. If any aberation presents, his troubleshooting skills or know-how should put things right back on the rails and get re-started on its way.
Since a bishop’s tenure of office seldom lasts more than a decade in most cases, these requisite visits could be undertaken only twice in his watch. He will need to be pretty thorough in his monitoring and should come up with the optimal ways and means in pursuance of his diocese’s expressed goals. He’ll be giving the canonical books a cursory inspection, or close scrutiny if he’s so minded. He’ll check the Tabernacle, Baptistry, the Confession boxes. Then he’ll be meeting and dialoguing with the PPC en bloc from its President to its humblest officers. Of course this last item on his agenda should be taking up a loy of his time, as such interaction would be more productive if he invested in a substantial amount of time and effort in it as he should being an exemplary overseer, unless he’d rather be an overlooker.
This about sums up the Bishop’s Pastoral visit. May he, together with all the Parish Priests and PPC members in his diocese come up with resolutions and programmes productive of gainful improvement for all concerned. Amen.
