Bishop David Konderla, newish Bishop of the Tulsa Diocese

Our Bishop, Bishop Konderla, was called to the fullness of the Catholic Priesthood a little over a year ago, to be a Successor to the Apostles, to transmit Sacred Tradition, to confirm and ordain, and to govern the faithful of Eastern Oklahoma as their Shepherd.

You may recall a year ago I discussed critically some changes in the diocese in light of the fact they occurred after the installment of our new bishop, and that later I apologized for any indiscretion in my blog posts, going too far.   The thing is we do not know certainly and publicly why those decisions were made, and the concrete circumstances.  I recall asking questions, not intending to assert an answer, yet some drew conclusions.

So instead, I would like to give some positive impressions of our newish bishop, which I think we can take as a good sign that Bishop Konderla has much to offer our Local Church.

1.  Bishop Konderla has a reputation of being very conservative, ie orthodox and following church law.  He is especially praised by the many college students he pastored, for many years, as the Catholic chaplain at College Station in Texas.  He oftened preached sermons explaining the Faith, the Lives of the Saints, and the call to holiness.  He helped endless young people know and continue to deepen their Catholic Faith.

2.  Bishop Konderla loves his priesthood.   His biography explains how he really took time to discern his vocation as a young man.  As a priest, he oftened mentored young men considering the priesthood, taking them on roadtrips to visit seminaries.  At one time he considered being a Trappist monk.   One layman reported that in all the many years he knew then Fr. Konderla, Father was always faithfully wearing publicly his priestly clerics.

3.  Bishop Konderla is a gentleman.  That was evident to me in a YouTube video in which he was showing some guys his country cabin retreat.  When I emailed him, he always emailed back and was friendly, caring, and polite.

The Catholic Church is in a Crisis.  It is difficult to not see how that is not caused in part by Ecclesial authority.  Yet thank God for bishops.  Without them there would be no priests.  And without priests, we would not have the mercy of Christ in the sacraments, especially confession and the Eucharist.
So thank God for Bishop Konderla.   We pray for him and all the priests every night.