BALTIMORE — About two weeks ago, during his last days as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Providence Bishop-Designate Bruce Lewandowski welcomed Rhode Island Catholic to shadow him for a weekend filled with Masses and activities in and around “Charm City,” as Baltimore is famously known.
During the course of the two days, Bishop Lewandowski exhibited a high level of energy as he celebrated four Masses, including one for the State Convention of the Knights of Columbus, a confirmation, his farewell Mass at the co-cathedral with a capacity to hold 2,000 worshippers, and a much smaller liturgy for a large group of college students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus.
He also made a visit to a pre-Mother’s Day dinner for the Hispanic community at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the Highlandtown neighborhood, where he resides.
Archbishop William E. Lori was in choir for Bishop Lewandowski’s farewell Mass at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Baltimore.
The archbishop told Rhode Island Catholic that he will greatly miss all the energy and zeal Bishop Lewandowski has brought to his ministry in the archdiocese, where he had served for the last five years as auxiliary bishop.
“Bishop Lewandowski truly has a pastor’s heart. He has zeal for the gospel; he loves God’s people and their diversity,” he said, before Mass at the mammoth and architecturally fascinating Cathedral of Mary Our Queen.
“He has greatly advanced Latino ministry in the archdiocese, he has helped to lay a new foundation for the Catholic faith in this City of Baltimore and he’s a wonderful friend and co-worker, he will be a great bishop of Providence, but I will also greatly miss him in Baltimore.”
Several Missionaries of Charity Sisters, for who Bishop Lewandowski had been offering a morning Mass for on Wednesdays, attended the farewell Mass.
“I appreciate his prayerfulness and the way he can take almost any scripture and apply it to himself and the people that he is speaking to,” said Sister Seton. “If he’s speaking to us, he speaks to us as religious and brings the point in the vowed life. If he’s speaking to the people in our parish, it’s about what is Jesus’ message to you. He lives in the presence of God, and so he is able to help others be strengthened or discover that beauty of living in the presence of God.”
She said that Bishop is very generous with his time, and when they were searching for a new convent, he helped them to find the right place and communicated with the archbishop to get all the necessary permissions.
“He knows how to face difficulties and look for where God’s grace is in those difficulties,” Sister Seton said.
“He is a very joyful person and he is ready to help anytime. You can approach him,” Sister Aloka said.
Father Ujunwa Patrick Okeahialam, C.S.Sp., says Bishop Lewandowski has been a great friend to the Spiritan order.
“He’s been so supportive and calls to check on how we’re doing, asking if there anything he can do to help.
“He is a great and very passionate pastor, eloquent in his outlook and approach to things.”
The night before, at St. John Neumann Church in Annapolis, Maryland, Bishop Lewandowksi celebrated two very well-attended Masses back-to-back. The first was for the Knights of Columbus.
In his homily, the bishop preached on a theme that he routinely puts into practice in his own life — praise, which is the worth, value and importance of something. He extolled the Knights for their great works that bring a better life to so many, and suggested how increasing praise should be a part of everyone’s daily life of faith.
“Appreciation leads us to thanksgiving,” Bishop Lewandowski said. “Thankfulness is the heart of prayer, and so a good appraisal leading to appreciation should lead us to prayers of thanksgiving. And prayers of thanksgiving lead us to praise.”
He took a moment to reflect on the passing of his dear mother Frances (Czelusta), a year ago.
“An appraisal of her life leads me to an appreciation of her and a gratitude for the gifts that I have from my mother whom I hope to praise in heaven,” he said.
Mike Lynch, state warden for the Maryland State Council of Knights of Columbus, said Bishop Lewandowski will be greatly missed.
“Bishop’s Bruce’s great caring for the diocese has been fantastic, so we’re obviously going to miss him here, but we’re super proud of him being called to go serve the flock in Providence.”
“His great pastoral care and a joy for the Holy Spirit are things that we’re definitely going to miss from him.”
Less than an hour after celebrating Mass for Knights, Bishop Lewandowski was back in the sanctuary to bestow the sacrament of confirmation on a large class of Hispanic young people, but not before warming up the students with some cheers and praise for the Holy Spirit.
“He makes all of us happy together in making us laugh, and the stories he tells us, it gets everybody involved together. It makes my day, him congratulating us, and makes us feel really good about ourselves,” said Nathaly Bravo, 15, one of the confirmandi.
“I like his presence, and I really appreciate him,” Bravo said.
Father John McKenna, C.Ss.R., a fellow Redemptorist of Bishop Lewandowski, who was ordained to the order, is largely in charge of the Hispanic programming at St. John Neumann, a mission church of St. Mary Parish, in Annapolis, Maryland.
“You’ve got the best of the best,” he said of Bishop Lewandowski.
He describes him as extroverted, with a desire to be close to the people he ministers to.
“What he said when he got to your diocese, that all he wanted to be was a simple man, a poor man, that’s exactly who he is. He has a passion for the underprivileged. So, he joined the right order with us.
Father Mike Houston, C.Ss.R., joked at how Bishop Lewandowski once blessed the bicyle he rides around on.
“He’s a great guy. He’s a huge advocate for the Spanish-speaking community, for migrants,” he said.
“He would fall on a grenade for those people. He would do absolutely anything for those people. As bishops go, he preaches pretty well. As Redemptorists we’re really proud of him.”
He attended seminary with the future bishop and recalls him as “a really smart guy and very emotional at times, passionate, zealous and a man of faith.”
He said he’s not afraid to challenge people and does so with their faith to be a good Christian, a good Catholic, a person of prayer.
“He’s very much in tune with the spirit. You landed a good one, man,” he said.
During his time as auxiliary bishop, Bishop Lewandowski resided very modestly at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in the largely Hispanic Highlandtown section of Baltimore
The parish is quite large with between 2,500-3,000 active families representing nine nationalities from Latin America.
Father Ako Trevor Walker, C.Ss.R., the pastor, was ordained to the priesthood on February 16, 2019, in Trinidad, his native country.
He said that Bishop Lewandowski has been a good friend to him for some time.
“Bishop Bruce brings a clear vision, in this case, as to what Hispanic ministry should look in the archdiocese. He is very organized, very committed to the task at hand, and also he has a love for the Hispanic community. He gets excited when he engages with them.”
He said that Bishop Bruce will be greatly missed, not only for his work as bishop, but for the wonderful friendships he has built over the years.
“Having Bishop Bruce living with us, even as an auxiliary bishop, he is one of us. He prayed with us whenever his schedule allowed, he ate with us, he chatted with us. It’s been really fulfilling having him here.”
On Sunday evening, Bishop Lewandowski celebrated his fourth Mass of the weekend, this one for about 80 students at the University of Maryland Baltimore County campus.
Following the Mass, the bishop sat down in the middle of the cafeteria for a pot luck dinner with the students and then made himself available to small groups eager to engage in theological discussions with him.
Father Matt Himes, associate director of vocations for the archdiocese and chaplain for the UMBC Catholic Retrievers — the Catholic Center’s young adult ministry — said that Bishop Lewandowski “has become very much a friend and pastoral presence to me and our students.”
“Bishop Bruce has been a real friend to the ministry,” he said. “This is his sixth time visiting and he’s such a great presence, very pastoral, and very much with them.
“I have great faith that he is going to serve the people of the Diocese of Providence well,” he said.
Bishop Lewandowski told Rhode Island Catholic that one of the key projects he oversaw at the direction of Archbishop Lori that will leave a lasting impact on the archdiocese is the Seek the City to Come pastoral listening and discernment process.
He said that while the Catholic Church is growing in other parts of the state of Maryland, it’s not experiencing such growth in the city because the archdiocese hadn’t positioned itself there fully for the work of evangelization.
“More is not always better,” he said, noting how the two-year process to revitalize the mission and ministries of the Catholic Church reduced city parishes from 61 down to 23, but at 30 sites.
“It was a long process of listening and prayer, study and reflection, but it’s already bearing some fruit. There are already opportunities for new ministries.”
He said that many pastors were responsible for massive buildings that were once packed with people before the times changed.
“We’re not running away from the city, we want to do better and more effective at the ministry we do in the city,” he said. “More is not always better.”
Auxiliary Bishop Adam Parker said Bishop Lewandowski is a man of genuine holiness.
“I am extremely happy for the people of the Diocese of Providence because they are receiving a bishop who is a man of true holiness, a man of true sincerity and a man of true humility. But even more to the degree that I am happy for the faithful of the Diocese of Providence, I’m happy for the priests of the diocese because he truly is a servant of the servants. He has a great heart for priests, and they will truly be well-served by him as their shepherd and leader.”
