Last week the Rhode Island Catholic covered a presentation from the Nation Grid Foundation to Bishop Thomas Tobin with a check for $70,000 toward the Bishop’s “Keep the Heat On” program, which has proven extremely successful in getting fuel assistance to those in need since its inception in 2005.
This week in the news, the Bishop has just returned from a pastoral visit to Haiti where the diocese has sponsored a Catholic elementary school and has maintained a relationship of Christian outreach and evangelization for this small, impoverished island nation. In the last few months, Bishop Tobin has celebrated Christmas Mass for the inmates in the Adult Correctional Institute and has seen to the extended services of the Emmanuel House homeless shelter. He has been a visible presence at prayer services to end hunger and on the sidewalks to end abortions. All this, and so much more while at the helm of one of the larger Catholic diocese in the United States with over 600,000 faithful.
Certainly, he does not work alone and is supported by the many employees and volunteers that make up our great Church. However, we must remember that such a large flock of sheep needs a strong shepherd. The Diocese of Providence is blessed to have one of the Church’s apostles that not only talks-the-talk, but is not afraid to walk-the-walk.
Pope Francis recently reminded us of an old axiom: a single tree falling in the woods makes more noise than an entire forest growing. Let us not be distracted by those who wish to overshadow the growth and strength of our local church under the guidance of Bishop Tobin by highlighting their falling trees.
