In his 12 years as leader of Rhode Island’s Catholics, Bishop Tobin has been a vocal and staunch defender of traditional church doctrine, willingly jumping into political frays and controversial issues whenever he sees morality at stake.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Tobin celebrated his 25th anniversary as a bishop on Sunday with a special Mass at the Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul marked by soaring choir voices, colorful priestly vestments and the ancient aroma of incense.
The occasion drew several hundred attendees and an altar crowded with dozens of priests, including his friends and fellow bishops from Worcester, Rochester, New York, and Sioux City, Iowa, and former bishops of the Providence Diocese, including Louis E. Geleneau and Robert E. Mulvee.
Bishop Tobin, who is 68, was ordained a priest in 1973 for the Diocese of Pittsburgh and eventually became its bishop in 1992. In 2005, Pope John Paul II named him the eighth bishop of Providence.
During his homily, Bishop Tobin — wearing the light-pink vestment of Advent that symbolizes the joy of Jesus’ arrival at Christmas — described himself with a quote from Mother Teresa: “I am a pencil in God's hands. He does the thinking. He does the writing.”
The bishop said, “I’m doing my best” to spread the word of Jesus Christ — and he offered an apology to those “I’ve offended” along the way.
In his 12 years as leader of Rhode Island’s Catholics, Bishop Tobin has been a vocal and staunch defender of traditional church doctrine, willingly jumping into political frays and controversial issues whenever he sees morality at stake.
Perhaps the most notable example came in 2009 when Bishop Tobin said that then-U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, a Catholic, should abstain from Communion because of his support of abortion rights.
His stances have earned him praise and criticism.
“I feel very strongly about the prophetic role of the Church: speaking truth with power,” Bishop Tobin told The Providence Journal in 2015 as he looked back on his first decade in Rhode Island. “Some people will like that, some people won’t like it; some will be offended, some will applaud.”
While his vociferous opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage has been criticized as inflammatory and discriminatory, there is nothing old-fashioned about his communication methods.
Bishop Tobin often relies on social media to share his views.
After the presidential election in November 2016, Bishop Tobin declared on Facebook that Donald Trump’s win represented “a new day and new hope for Pro-lifers.” He has also used Facebook to describe as “damaging” the president’s executive travel ban on immigrants coming from predominantly-Muslim nations.
More recently the bishop turned to Facebook to criticize what he described as a “gay nativity scene,” asserting the California creche display, featuring two Josephs watching over Jesus, was a “sacrilege” and “an attack on the Christian Faith.”
The bishop also shares his views in a column he writes for the diocese paper, the Rhode Island Catholic.
In June he wrote: “From many quarters today we keep hearing that the Church has to 'listen' more – to millennials, the LGBTQ community, the transgendered, feminists, and lots of other groups with particular agendas. I get it. It’s important that we talk and listen to one another, and I know as well as anyone that consultation is an indispensable part of the life of the Church today. However, when Jesus commissioned the Apostles to go forth, he instructed them to teach, not listen, didn’t he?”
On Sunday, as he looked back on his 43 years as a priest, Bishop Tobin thanked God for calling him to his ministry and offered a prayer for the Providence Diocese which “I’ve come to love with my whole heart and soul.”
He said he had not asked for any anniversary gifts. But in light of his favorite football team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, just hours away from playing the New England Patriots, he was requesting a last-minute “miracle.” That the Steelers beat the Patriots.
— tmooney@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7359
On Twitter: @mooneyprojo