Vermont's new Roman Catholic bishop installed during Mass

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) - The Rev. Christopher Coyne, the Catholic Church's first blogging priest to be elevated to a bishop, was formally installed as Vermont's new Roman Catholic bishop during a Mass on Thursday attended by nearly 1,000 people including representatives of the diocese's 73 parishes.

Bishop Coyne said the church needs to shift from a "church of the establishment," where worshippers come to it, to a "missionary church" that goes out and engages a wider community.

"The ringing of church bells was once something with which we Vermonters were very familiar. Whether it was in the small towns of the countryside or the competing calls of the churches of the cities, the Sunday morning call of the bells 'to the bath and the table, to the prayers and the Word' were a constant reminder of the presence of God in our midst," he said during the Mass.

The bells still ring out - not so many and not so often - but not many answer the call. Congregations have grown smaller and grayer each year, he said.

"And yet, I like many of you, do not stand here in this cathedral without hope, without the conviction that this need not be. Now more than ever, our community needs to hear the call of the 'Good News' proclaimed to a culture that seems to hear so many other voices," he said.

Vermont has about 118,000 Catholics, with about 28,000 attending Mass regularly. The church faces the same challenges in Vermont as it does across the country: declining membership, a shortage of priests and the aftermath a priest sex abuse scandal that forced the diocese to sell off some of its most valuable real estate to pay legal settlements.

The 56-year-old Coyne served three years as auxiliary bishop in Indianapolis before coming to Vermont. He is a native of Woburn, Massachusetts, and served as the spokesman for the Diocese of Boston during the priest sex abuse scandal. In Vermont, he replaces Bishop Salvatore Matano, who became the bishop of Rochester, New York, in 2013.

Anne Buley, 63, of Burlington, who attended the Mass, got choked up when asked about Coyne.

He's really down to earth and very humorous, but I mean serious in the religious aspect," said Buley, who said she's seen his posts on Facebook.

Gail O'Brien, 63, of Shaftsbury also attended the Mass and heard him speak the night before at evening prayer. "He seemed very welcoming of the whole ecumenical group that was there last night. His final words were about what we can all do together is pray for peace. He just seemed to have a good message," she said.

During the Mass, Coyne's appointment letter from Pope Francis was read before he was escorted to the cathedra by Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston, and Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the pope's ambassador to the U.S.

He used the crozier, or bishop's staff, of the first bishop of Burlington, Louis Joseph Mary Theodore De Goesbriand, and wore the pectoral cross of the second bishop of Burlington, John Stephen Michaud.