To recognize each year served as bishop of Toledo, the Most Rev. Daniel E. Thomas plants a new tree in the episcopal garden by the cathedral.
This year, Bishop Thomas planted his 10th tree.
He celebrated Tuesday the anniversary of his installation as eighth bishop of Toledo in a Mass attended by about 1,000 worshippers, more than half of them schoolchildren from across the 19-county diocese, and by visiting with various groups within the diocese.
“Ten years ago, I could never have imagined what these 10 years would hold,” Bishop Thomas said during his Tuesday morning homily at Our Lady, Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Cathedral. “Incredible graces and blessings, incredible challenges and sorrows, and incredible joy.”
Throughout the rest of the day, he made a round of stops similar to those he made on his first day in Toledo.
A visit to young people indicates his dedication to Catholic education; a visit to a convent indicates his dedication to consecrated religious life; a visit to a Catholic Charities ministry reflects his dedication to outreach to the poor; and a visit to a nursing home indicates his outreach to the sick, he said. The bishop also gathered with diocesan staff and later his priest consulters, just as he had done the day his appointment was announced.
Bishop Thomas was installed as shepherd of the Diocese of Toledo on Oct. 22, 2014, following the appointment of Toledo’s former bishop, Leonard Blair, to archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford, Conn.
Reflecting on his first decade in Toledo, Bishop Thomas, 65, states it simply as 10 years of “unmerited grace.”
“It’s the grace of the Lord, and the grace that has been very, very much evident to me in 10 years through the diocese,” he said during an interview Friday in his office at the diocesan Pastoral Center. “Without that grace, anything that has been accomplished would have been utterly impossible.”
Tuesday also marked the feast day for St. John Paul II, who served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005, and whom Bishop Thomas had previously worked for in the Vatican. He spoke Tuesday about St. John Paul II’s motto “totus tuus,” meaning “totally yours,” saying he entrusts himself totally to Jesus, Mary, and his flock, the people of the Diocese of Toledo.
Church law requires that bishops present their resignation at age 75, though they might continue to serve longer if requested by the Holy See.
“So, please, God, I have 10 more fruitful years,” Bishop Thomas said, adding that he’s 50 percent there.
In the coming years, he hopes to carry the diocese forward with a deeper commitment to evangelization, which he believes, per the diocesan prayer, can help “foster holy disciples, holy families, and holy vocations, so as to become a more holy Diocese of Toledo.”
“Evangelization begins with every individual ... and every one of us has that same mission to be faithful to the Lord and to live out the Gospel,” he said. “I would hope that we could do that with greater zeal, greater fidelity, and greater humility.”
A public witness of the faith, he added, can help work against sin, which, along with apathy, is the greatest battle the church faces, the bishop said.
And the most challenging part of his role, he said without hesitation, has been dealing with the sexual abuse crisis.
“That is deeply painful. It is deeply sorrowful. It is, in the end, something for which the church continues to repent,” Bishop Thomas said. “All that we've done to address that issue and all the efforts we've made for child and youth protection have certainly borne fruit.”
He said the child and youth protection policy has been updated at least twice in his 10 years and the independent review board has been strengthened.
Other efforts Bishop Thomas has overseen include welcoming four new congregations of consecrated religious to serve in the diocese, bringing in efforts to form students and young adults, and launching the diocese’s first-ever strategic plan.
The strategic plan, released in 2019, highlights core values and pillars that define the focus of diocesan work from supporting healthy parishes and growing outreach efforts to stewarding its financial resources responsibly.
Yet, he’s proud to say that a large portion of his time has been spent with the communities he shepherds.
“Every leader, every bishop has to spend time in administration and being at the desk, but the greatest joy of my life is obviously not being at the desk. It’s being out with the people,” Bishop Thomas said Friday.
“It’s critical for me. I mean, Jesus went to the people. He was with the people,” he continued. “That’s the ministry of Jesus ... so I believe that that’s a serious part of my ministry as bishop.”
The Rev. Msgr. William Kubacki, vicar general for the diocese, touched on the significance of the bishop’s task to teach, govern, and sanctify.
“Those three of the episcopal ministry really capture what he does: leading people in prayer, teaching Scripture and tradition,” Monsignor Kubacki said. And the bishop is a strong leader is that “he’s decisive, he listens, he collaborates with people,” and the attention he pays to his priests is “unwavering,” Monsignor Kubacki said.
Kevin Parkins, head of school at Central Catholic High School, said Bishop Thomas continues a tradition of Toledo bishops in visiting schools. He said the bishop fields hard questions from students, answering them “intentionally and with grace and dignity.”
“He’s very interested in making sure our youth are formed well,” Mr. Parkins said, adding that the bishop reorients diocesan leaders toward the mission of forming disciples.
“Bishop Thomas has been a leader through good times and challenging decisions and continually helps us align to Christ with those decisions,” Mr. Parkins said.
With a choir of students from St. Joseph Maumee and St. Joseph Sylvania schools behind him and three dozen priests to his right and left, Bishop Thomas concluded his homily with a vow to the faithful.
“With all my heart,” he said, “I pledge to love you with every fiber of my being, to pour myself out for love of you, to hold you close daily in prayer.”
Celebrating the sacraments and visiting the 122 parishes across the diocese is the most rewarding part of his vocation.
“This is the will of God, and I’m striving to embrace him every day,” Bishop Thomas said. “If I can do his will, then that’s the source of my happiness.”
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