Bishop Williams — personal meaning to sacred symbols

When then-Father Joseph Williams’ appointment as auxiliary bishop was publicly announced Dec. 10, he concelebrated a morning Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul with Archbishop Bernard Hebda and held a press conference immediately afterward.

The archbishop greeted him before that Mass with a pectoral cross, a symbol of the dignity of his new office, which the archbishop himself had worn. He has been wearing it with his clerics ever since.

“He (Archbishop Hebda) calls it a “loaner,” or ‘you could keep it,’” Bishop Williams told The Catholic Spirit before his Jan. 25 ordination and installation as auxiliary bishop. “I think he was being humble.”

“It’s very beautiful,” Bishop Williams said. “I think I’d like to keep it, at least while I’m serving him, as a reminder that I’m his auxiliary. My first job is to support him.”

Other symbols of the episcopacy that hold personal meaning for Bishop Williams are a zucchetto, the “skullcap” typically worn by bishops, that belonged to the late Bishop Paul Sirba, a priest of the archdiocese who as bishop served the Diocese of Duluth before he died in 2019.

Bishop Williams said his crosier, or pastoral staff, was made by one of Bishop Sirba’s nephews, Paul Sirba of St. Paul. In the crook of the crosier is a shamrock representing the Trinity and a single rose representing the Latino people, an important ministry personally and for the Church, the bishop said.

The shamrock reminds him of St. Patrick, his confirmation name and an inspiration through the years to his Latino ministry because the saint was not Irish, but was a missionary bishop to the people of Ireland, Bishop Williams said. In a similar way, Bishop Williams said, while not a Latino, he has striven to be a missionary to the Latino community in the archdiocese.

The episcopal ring Bishop Williams will wear is decorated with a fleur-de-lis that includes a cross, a rose and an image of the Virgin Mary. It’s fashioned after the logo of Our Lady of Lourdes parish in Minneapolis, and used with permission, Bishop Williams said, from that parish’s pastor, Father Daniel Griffith, who is a friend and a member of his seminary graduating class.

The pectoral cross and zuchetto in particular remind him, Bishop Williams said, that “I have brothers on earth, and in heaven, that have gone before me, that are serving with me, that we’re a college, you might say, of apostles, serving together in this.”