Thank you for leaving a legacy of growth and improvement
By Bishop Rutilio J. del Riego
Bishop Barnes, today is a day of thanksgiving to God for the innumerable blessings we and the Diocese of San Bernardino have received through you and through your episcopal ministry. Truly, you have lived well the motto you chose for your episcopal ministry: “Amar es Entregarse.”
Now is the time to celebrate our unity in diversity, something you fostered incessantly since you came to San Bernardino. You called us to accept each other for who we are, with our own culture and varied ways in which we express our faith. BICM (Building Intercultural Competence for Ministry) was one of the means to impress this attitude in all who minister in the Diocese. You have done this also through the Department of Apostolic and Ethnic Affairs.
Bishop Barnes, you have offered help and fostered in us the desire to care for the poor, the immigrants, the elderly, the youth, the sick and the prisoners. You did this in different ways. Let me mention the strengthening of the Department of Life, Dignity and Justice and the Office of Ministry to Young Catholics, your support of service agencies and institutions like Faith in Action, the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, and other community organizing groups.
A very important contribution you offered to the Diocese was your support for and the transformation of the Straling Leadership Institute into the Department of Ministry Formation Institute for theological and pastoral formation of ecclesial ministers, offering the classes in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. (The opportunities for ministry formation have expanded with the collaboration with the Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara University.) Let me mention also the strengthening of the permanent formation for priests, and the offering of the Permanent Diaconate Program in English and in Spanish.
There are other branches of your legacy, but I don’t want to fail to mention the gradual increase of lay personnel, especially women in the staff of the Diocesan Pastoral Center, appointing them to positions like chancellor, vice chancellor, department head, and office director.
Let me mention the continuous encouragement of fuller participation in the liturgy by the laypeople. In most parishes the Eucharist is celebrated in English and another language. The diocesan liturgical celebrations are mostly bilingual and, at times, multilingual.
Thank you for your high degree of consultation especially through the Diocesan Boards and Councils, and for the establishment of the Department of Pastoral Planning.
One more important legacy that I believe you leave is the especially well-prepared Episcopal Visitations of parishes. And last, but not least, are the dedication of eight new parish churches in the Diocese, and the opening of a new facility for the Serra House of Formation for diocesan seminarians.
Bishop Rutilio J. del Riego is the Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of San Bernardino.
Bishop Barnes helped us to experience the presence of Jesus
By Msgr. Gerard Lopez
On reflecting on the many years of Bishop Barnes’ stewardship of our Diocese of San Bernardino, Chapter 10 of the Gospel of St. John comes to mind quite vividly, as we hear Jesus describe the ministry of the Good Shepherd. I think especially of verse 11 in which Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”
Bishop Barnes was tireless in his ministry as the Good Shepherd, attending to the spiritual and practical needs of our diverse and dynamic Diocese, always laying down his life for our wellbeing.
It was a blessing to have been an eyewitness to the many ways in which he fulfilled the role of Good Shepherd to parishioners, school children, priests and deacons, religious, lay leaders and especially the Diocesan Pastoral Center staff who represented him in our daily work on behalf of his service as Diocesan Bishop.
He accompanied several generations of Catholics from 1992 to 2020, guiding us through the storms of 9/11 and the sexual abuse crisis and helping us to celebrate many joyful memories such as the 25th and 40th anniversaries of our Diocese.
Most wonderfully, we thank Bishop Barnes for guiding us through our Vision and Mission Process culminating in our Diocesan Vision Statement that now guides us in our important journey of our Diocesan Synod Process of Communion, Participation and Mission.
Through his many words of wisdom and his wonderful sense of humor, he helped us all to experience in person the presence of Jesus, the Good Shepherd.
We wish Bishop Barnes many happy and joyful years in his retirement. I personally thank him for being a great model of the priest in the image of Jesus, the one High Priest, who gave his life for all humanity.
May Our Lord, the Good Shepherd, grant Bishop Barnes a time of rest, good health and the good company of his family and friends as he now takes time to perform a good inventory of the many blessings that the Lord has given him.
Well done, good and faithful Shepherd! Thank you for helping us to become a Diocese and People Filled with Hope!
Msgr. Gerard Lopez is the Vicar General for the Diocese of San Bernardino.
A true and genuine Shepherd
By Cardinal Roger Mahony
Several years ago, while Pope Francis was in Colombia for a pastoral visit, he met with brother Jesuit priests. What he told them was extraordinary:
“The people of God have a good sense of smell. And sometimes our task as pastors is to be behind the people. A pastor has to take up all three positions: in front to mark out the road, in the middle, to know it, and at the back to ensure nobody falls behind and to let the flock seek the road ... and the sheep smell a good pasture. A pastor has to move continually between these three positions.” (Pope Francis, Cartagena, Colombia, Sept. 10, 2017)
When I first read that passage, I immediately thought of Bishop Gerald Barnes, the Bishop of San Bernardino.
Since 1992, Bishop Barnes has been that true and genuine Shepherd after the heart, mind and soul of Jesus, the first great and Good Shepherd.
I join my prayers and celebration of this extraordinary Shepherd and Bishop who has guided the Diocese of San Bernardino through extraordinary growth and pastoral development over the years!
May God grant him many more joyous years in our midst!
Cardinal Roger Mahony is the Archbishop Emeritus of Los Angeles.
Bishop Barnes: A gift to the people of God
By Fr. Romy Seleccion, MS
Bishop Emeritus Gerald R. Barnes is a GIFT to the Diocese of San Bernardino and to the people of God as well. The word GIFT isn’t an ordinary word; it’s extraordinary, and loaded with spiritual treasures.
The word GIFT’s letters reveal Bishop Barnes’ character as a spiritual leader:
G is generosity! Bishop Barnes’ heart is a generous one - locally and globally. Globally because his International Sacrificial Giving Grant (ISGG) has served many organizations in the third world countries.
It caters for the “people in the peripheries” (“poor and marginalized”) to regain their human dignity as created in God’s image and likeness. Some La Salette Missionaries’ ministries in the Philippines were beneficiaries of ISGG.
I is identity! Bishop Barnes’ motto “Amar es entregarse (Love is the total giving of oneself)” reflects his identity as a servant leader: an architect of hope and not despair; a creator of collaboration and not division; and always one to pursue total self-giving over self-fulfillment.
F is family! Bishop Barnes values family and community. He always asks the question, “Who is not represented in the table?” His heart always whispers, “There is always room for one more!” For him, family is “belongingness.”
T is transformation! Bishop Barnes is a transformer, a game changer. He initiated programs that call for laity’s empowerment. How beautiful it is to see the face of the Diocese’s employment force as a collage of different colors, languages,
ethnicity, laity, religious and clergy working together in the spirit of synodality.
Bishop Gerald Barnes, Salamat po!
Fr. Romy Seleccion, MS, is the Episcopal Vicar of the San Bernardino Pastoral Region and Pastor of St. Christopher in Moreno Valley.
A very spiritual and dedicated Bishop
By Fr. Santos Ortega
2021 has been a very special year for me as I celebrate my 25th priest ordination anniversary and reflect on the people who have played a tremendous role in my priestly life. One of those people is definitely Bishop Emeritus Gerald Barnes. I am very fortunate not only to be the first Central American ordained a priest for the Diocese of San Bernardino, but also the first Diocesan Priest to be ordained by Bishop Barnes (May 31, 1996) a few months after he officially became the Ordinary Bishop of the Diocese.
In the years that I have been here, I feel that I have been truly blessed to have had the companionship and support of a very spiritual and dedicated Bishop who has given an exceptionally fine service to our Diocese of San Bernardino. I learned from his practical approach to various problems and issues, his strong approach to the very basic tenets of our faith. Of course, we know that he brought a deep love of the Holy Eucharist and a sense of celebration to our Diocese, and a principle focus of his was to create in us an appreciation of the sacraments and their celebrations.
Bishop Barnes, I can’t express enough my thanks and gratitude, and I will be forever indebted to you for your help and support throughout my 25 years of priesthood.
Fr. Santos Ortega is the pastor of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Yucaipa and was the first priest ordained by Bishop Barnes.
Ad multos annos
By Msgr. Donald S. Webber
There is an ancient Latin phrase that priests share among themselves as a sort of blessing: “Ad multos annos.” It is translated from in Latin as “For many years.”
We can look back on the ministry of Bishop Barnes and be thankful for the many years of his commitment and leadership in the Diocese of San Bernardino. We offer him our prayers of appreciation and gratitude.
And we can look forward and say Ad multos annos for his future years. We ask God to grant him many more years of joy, of new opportunities and of good health. Ad multos annos Bishop Barnes!
Monsignor Donald S. Webber served as the Vicar General from 1991 to 2000.
Meeting Bishop Barnes for the first time
By Fr. Gino Galley
The very first time I had ever met Bishop Barnes was at the Rite of Election at Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in 2005. I had just barely turned 18 years old and was on the journey of faith through Rite of Christian Initation of Adults (RCIA) to become a Christian and a Catholic for the first time. As I awkwardly wrote my name in the Book of the Elect, I remember feeling a rush of both excitement and nervousness while standing under the observant gaze of His Excellency. But these feelings quickly transformed into a spirit of calm and paternal affirmation as he firmly shook my hand while flashing his iconic grin and whimsical wink. Little did I know that he would once again give me that same handshake, grin and wink 13 years later, after ordaining me as a Priest of Jesus Christ on May 18, 2019.
This encounter with our Bishop Emeritus taught me that, through the grace of our common baptism, we are all called to be prophets with more than just mere words, but also by making the strenuous effort to be fully present to another, even if for a brief moment.
Fr. Gino Galley is a Parochical Vicar at The Holy Name of Jesus, Redlands