Auxiliary Bishop Andrew P. Wypych might have resigned from ministry in September, but he is clear that he has not retired from being a bishop. That’s because a bishop and a priest are what he is, he said, not what he does. Bishop Wypych, 68, asked to resign his responsibilities as episcopal vicar for Vicariate V because of health reasons. The Vatican announced Sept. 19 that Pope Francis had accepted his retirement, along with that of Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry, who had reached the age of 75, when bishops are required to submit their resignations. Some of the responsibilities had become difficult, Bishop Wypych said, especially those that require long periods of standing. But he intends to continue as a shepherd to the priests and people, and, especially, to the Polish Catholic community of the Archdiocese of Chicago. “I would say that I enjoyed it most of the time,” Bishop Wypych said of his episcopal ministry. “Spending time with the people in the parishes and all the visits and confirmations. In addition to being a vicar, I’m also national director of the Catholic League for Religious Assistance to Poland and Polonia, so that gave me another level of responsibility and care.” That includes working on the St. John Paul the Great scholarship program that is sponsored by the league, as well as working with Polish schools and presiding at confirmations at them. Bishop Wypych spoke in the Vicariate V office, next to St. Walter Church. On the credenza behind the table where he sat stood a statue of St. John Paul II, the Polish pope who ordained Wypych a deacon during the last months he was archbishop of Krakow. He met the pope more than once after that, telling the Chicago archdiocesan newspaper that even after becoming pope, St. John Paul II was just the same with the seminarians and priests of Krakow. Bishop Wypych came to Chicago in 1983, following his mother, who had emigrated to the United States in 1974, after his father had died. He was welcomed by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, and was incardinated into the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1990. “I was educated and formed in Poland, and when I went through the seminary system in Poland, the emphasis was on Christ’s presence,” Bishop Wypych said. “It was a Christocentric alignment in our formation. When I came here, it was mostly about ecclesiology, the church as the holy people of God.” Bishop Wypych said he worked to integrate the two approaches, an effort that was supported by Cardinal Francis George, who became archbishop of Chicago in 1997. “I told him, ‘You are speaking my language,’” Bishop Wypych said. “Cardinal George was a great translator of that whole theological formation. … I grew up into that combining ecclesiological approach and Christocentric approach, and that added to my understanding of the church.” The role of a bishop, Bishop Wypych said, is to teach, to sanctify and to govern, and all three are interwoven. A bishop is present with the people and in his parishes for high points and celebrations like confirmations, but also when there are problems that must be addressed. It’s especially difficult when the failings of a priest are at the center of the problem, he said. “When you have a situation that is not so pretty and you have a scandal, people have different emotions, so they don’t speak very often through the lenses of their faith but through their emotions, and I have to be the one who listens to all these things, and very often in such situations, it’s not pleasant.” Father William Corcoran, pastor of St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Orland Hills and interim vicar for Vicariate V, said Bishop Wypych has always been a good listener. “Some people don’t like to hear gripes,” said Corcoran, who worked with Bishop Wypych as a dean both when he was pastor of St. Linus Parish and in his current assignment. “I think he was successful at connecting with people. He was very much himself, and that was very good. He would listen, and it was important that their voices got heard.” At such times, Bishop Wypych said, he listens and prays at the same time, asking the Holy Spirit to give him counsel and also for peace for the people speaking to him. “I watched him time and again bring a pastor’s viewpoint to any initiative or concern from downtown,” Corcoran said. “He was very good at passing on what I think is vital information to the archdiocese.”
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