PITTSBURGH (OSV News) – Pittsburgh’s new shepherd, Bishop Mark A. Eckman, remarked in his homily at his July 14 installation Mass that earlier, ahead of the afternoon liturgy, he had prayed with the diocese’s priests and told them, “All I ever wanted to do was to be a parish priest.”
“But the Lord obviously has other plans, and he has a wicked sense of humor,” Bishop Eckman told the congregation filling St. Paul Cathedral to witness him becoming Pittsburgh’s 13th bishop. Previously the auxiliary of the diocese, Bishop Eckman succeeds now-retired Bishop David A. Zubik, whom he thanked at the start of his homily, calling him “No. 12.”
“Our diocese owes you so much, a debt of gratitude for all that you have done during the past 18 years serving as our bishop,” he said. “You have certainly made our diocese a church alive. You’ve confronted many challenges that were placed before you and you did it with a spirit-filled heart always concerned with the needs of the faithful of this diocese, hoping and helping them to become closer to God.”
At the start of his homily, Bishop Eckman told the priests of the diocese, “I’ve worked with you for the last 10 years as vicar for clergy, and I can say that I know you probably better than you would like. And that goes both ways.” The bishop also shared that he had asked those planning his installation to have the priests sit front and center in the cathedral.
“The priests of the diocese, of any diocese, are the heart and the soul of the bishop and the heart and the soul of the faithful,” Bishop Eckman said. “You’re the people who work on the front lines. You’re the people who proclaim the word of God and minister the sacraments to all the faithful. And the work of the church, the work of the Lord, could never be done without your commitment, without your hard work.
“And so I pledge to continue to work with you and to continue to build the church on the strong foundation that we all have received.”
He committed his willingness “to continue not only to work with you but to help us all to be able to do God’s will.” Bishop Eckman said one of the first things he plans to do as Pittsburgh’s bishop is to have meetings with all the priests in the regions of the diocese.
“I just want to come and listen to you, to hear your concerns, to hear your needs, to see what suggestions you might have on how we can continue to grow the church,” he added.
Bishop Eckman then addressed the faithful, saying, “My dear people of God who are gathered here and those who are joining by live streaming, God bless you.”
He said he had heard from so many since his June 4 appointment that “you’re keeping me in prayer and that’s certainly what I need as I begin this ministry.”
As a “homegrown boy,” the Pittsburgh native said that he plans “to travel throughout the diocese to visit each and every parish.”
In keeping with his episcopal motto — “To serve in faith and charity” — the bishop said he’ll go to listen to “the advisory councils of the parish, the pastoral councils, the finance councils, the ecclesial ministers.”
But, he continued, “I will bring one question to each parish. And that question is going to be: ‘How are you living out the works of mercy? How are you living in your parish a life of faith and charity? What are you doing for God’s people?'”
“I know already there’s so much good that goes on in various different ways throughout the diocese. So we might be looking for ways to make that even stronger … trying to make sure that all of God’s people are served, that all of God’s people know of God’s love.”
Bishop Eckman said he’s “not fooling” himself and knows “it’s going to take time” to visit all 60 parishes in the diocese. “It is probably going to take all of 2026 to finish that task … but I will have that scheduled and I’ll be looking forward to seeing each and every one of you.”
The six-county diocese in western Pennsylvania, with a Catholic population of nearly 616,000, is “composed of many different people from many different backgrounds and people who have various needs. And each and every one of us is called to be a people who work together to build the body of Christ.”
Bishop Eckman said that “a lot of folks have been asking me, ‘How do you see your role as a bishop?’ … And somebody said, ‘Well, you’re sort of like a regional manager.'”
“And I said, ‘No, it’s different than being a manager because you’re just not managing people or places or buildings. I sort of relate it to being a conductor of an orchestra. And in an orchestra, you have the various instruments, the stringed instruments, the percussions, the woodwind, the brass. And it’s up to the conductor to make all those voices heard at the right time, contributing to the piece of music that they have before them. And on the part of the musicians, they need to be committed to practicing and practicing and practicing in order that they can get the piece down right.”
“The musical piece is … loving God. It’s loving our neighbor,” he said. “It’s a one-day-at-a-time process where we live out the promises of our baptism to love our God and to love our neighbor. But we do it hopefully with open hearts and open minds, always responding to the needs of the spirit.”
Bishop Eckman asked the faithful for prayers: “I need your prayers so that I, too, can respond to the voice of the Lord; to hear how he wants me to live out my life and my faith; and then to be able to put what I’m hearing into practice.”
He also urged them to pray for priestly vocations “to help us to build our local church.”
“It’s very important for us to start now to work on building the laborers for the church,” he said, but he also stressed the importance of the vocations of marriage and the single life and to help laypeople “understand that important role that they have in building up Christ’s church.”
The bishop delivered his homily standing in front of the altar holding a microphone. Before beginning his homily, he turned to thank the many bishops up on the altar for his installation, including Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez, who presided over the Mass; Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States; and Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl, retired archbishop of Washington, who was Pittsburgh’s bishop from 1988-2006.