LA’s rookie auxiliaries return from Vatican’s ‘bishops school’
For a Catholic priest to be named a bishop, no prior training, achievements, or degrees are necessarily required.
The closest thing the Church has to a learning certificate for new bishops is a weeklong formation program in Rome (sometimes referred to as the “baby bishops course”) where they spend time with one another, Vatican officials, and the pope himself.
But for LA Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff, the most helpful experience of this year’s course came at an unlikely moment: standing in silence before the tomb of St. Peter with dozens of his fellow rookie bishops from around the world as he waited his turn to pray before his relics.