Bishop Zubik to be installed December 12 Bishop David Zubik (photo by H. Marc Larson) By Sarah Riley News-Chronicle Bishop Davis Zubik, who was named bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay Friday, comes to Northeast Wisconsin with a reputation for compassion, extensive administrative experience and a moderately conservative belief system he developed at the Diocese of Pittsburgh. "You have one of our very best priests," said the Rev. Dennis Buranosky, pastor of Assumption Parish Bellevue in Pittsburgh. "This morning when I read the news I was really sad." Pope John Paul II named Zubik Green Bay's 11th bishop on Sept. 30 and the appointment was announced at a press conference Friday. Zubik will succeed Bishop Robert Banks, who asked for retirement in February on his 75th anniversary in accordance with church practices. Zubik will officially be installed as the bishop of the Diocese of Green Bay at a ceremony at 2 p.m., Dec. 12. He was in town briefly Friday to check out possible locations for the ceremony. "For as long as I can remember, even as a young boy, I've had a deep desire to serve the Catholic Church," Zubik, 54, said Friday. "Today, I find myself deeply humbled." Zubik is an auxiliary bishop in Pittsburgh and has been a priest for 28 years in the Pittsburgh area. There he has served as a vice principal of a Catholic high school, chaplain, administrative secretary to the bishop, director of clergy personnel, chancellor of the diocese and auxiliary bishop for more than five years. Priests who worked with Zubik in Pittsburgh said his sensitivity stood out while he was progressing through the hierarchy of the diocese. "He's a good administrator because he listens. He listens to people's point of view, an extremely important quality in a leader," said the Rev. Lawrence DiNardo, Pittsburgh's vicar for canon and civil law services. DiNardo has known Zubik since they attended high school together. "One of the gifts that I have is that I seek to be a good listener," Zubik said. Zubik will begin his transition to Green Bay on Nov. 7. A young leader Zubik is known as an energetic and enthusiastic person who is relatively young for a bishop. Paul Wadell, associate professor of religious studies at St. Norbert College, said Zubik progressed through the ranks quickly and could become bishop of a much larger diocese. "The fact that he is young, I think there is a good chance he could move to an archdiocese," he said. "(But) it would be unlikely that he would not be here for several years." A self-described "middle-of-the road" moderate, Zubik said he has a strong loyalty to the Catholic doctrine and its philosophy. "I'm a firm believer of what the church teaches," he said. Ann Rodgers-Melnick, who covers the Pittsburgh Diocese for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, said Zubik is a known as a "moderate conservative." "He's not one to try to turn back the clock," she said. Pittsburgh Bishop Donald Wuerl, Zubik's leader and mentor, set a zero-tolerance policy of priestly sexual abuse, something Rodgers-Melnick said Zubik supported strongly. "If you abuse, they don't take you back," she said. "The Dallas Charter (a bishops' statement last year on sexual abuse) in some ways is not as strong as the Pittsburgh policy." Today, Wadell said, anyone appointed by Pope John Paul II to a leadership position is probably conservative. "No bishop appointed today is going to be liberal, I think," he said. He said priests have to go through a litmus test of sorts determining their opinion on hot-button proposals, such as women in the priesthood and the church's acceptance of birth control. "I would suspect that he would be very much along the same lines" as other John Paul appointees, Wadell said. But trying to label Zubik would be too rigid, Buranowsky said, because his value system is based on fairness and working to be a great priest. "To call him conservative or liberal, that would be bad," he said. "You can't label him. He just loves the church, loves his priests." No matter what his beliefs, Zubik's associates say he works very well with parishioners. "He is a bishop with great pastoral sensitivity," said the Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesperson for the Pittsburgh diocese. Zubik's plans The four areas where Zubik said he would like to concentrate during his time in Green Bay are spirituality, evangelicalization (understanding the church's teachings), promoting priesthood and protection of all people of the church. Spirituality is a way to connect parishioners with God, he said, and he wants to instill a deeper meaning to attending Mass. "There are so many movements today where people want to connect with God," he said. "Part of what we need to do is help people understand how important the Eucharist is." Zubik is a "man of deep prayer" and always starts meetings with a prayer, Lengwin said. At Friday's press conference, Zubik said he wanted to help adult Catholics develop an understanding of the church and its teachings through adult education. He wants worshipers to understand why things are done a certain way. He also would like to promote his "deep love and respect for priests." Priests are not encouraged and supported enough by the public and they should be congratulated for their dedication, he said. At the same time, younger men should be invited to join the priesthood to bolster the aging population's numbers. Despite the ongoing sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the Catholic Church and touched Green Bay, now is an exciting time for the church, Zubik said. A restoration of faith is taking place and the future looks bright. "I think the days ahead of the church are exciting," he said. "I think enthusiasm can be contagious." Zubik grew up in Sewickley, Pa., a rural community in Western Pennsylvania, and knows the area that has seen the economic depression associated with the closure of steel mills. But Western Pennsylvania is very different from Northeast Wisconsin, he added. He has already started learning about the area and will travel extensively for the first six months to a year of his tenure here to get to know the community. "Two only two things I knew about Green Bay is that it's in Wisconsin, and it's the home of the Green Bay Packers," he said. He will spend the next month in Pittsburgh helping train his successor. After that, he'll begin packing and transfer his life here. Diocesan history Banks submitted his retirement request to the Pope on his 75th birthday in February in accordance with church practices. Banks came to Green Bay from Boston and served here for 13 years. Banks' final year as bishop was marred by allegations that he participated in the transferring of priests involved in sexual misconduct while in Boston. Banks later apologized for his involvement and was investigated by the Massachusetts Attorney General but no criminal charges were ever filed. His superior in Boston, Cardinal Bernard Law, resigned in December. Before Banks, Bishop Adam Joseph Maida served in Green Bay from 1984-1990. He, too, came from the Pittsburgh Diocese and was appointed archbishop and then cardinal of the Diocese of Detroit after leaving Green Bay. Before Maida, Bishop Aloyisius Wycislo served as bishop from 1968-1983. He remains in the area. A new addition to St. Francis Xavier Cathedral bears his name. News-Chronicle reporters Monique Balas and Ray Barrington contributed to this report.