'Smiles a mile wide' greet installation of Youngstown bishop

Published: 2007-04-03

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (CNS) -- If the installation of Bishop George Vance Murry as the fifth head of the Diocese of Youngstown had taken place 24 hours earlier, the temperature would have been 20 degrees closer to what he was used to in his eight years as bishop of the U.S. Virgin Islands. The day had dawned cool and gray, but finished in the mid-60s with sunshine. But temperatures were the last thing on the minds of some 900 lay Catholics, prelates and honored dignitaries who gathered March 28 at St. Columba Cathedral in Youngstown for the afternoon installation of the new bishop. The liturgy was filled with moving moments, perhaps none more so than when Bishop Murry told the congregation, in a voice rising with emphasis, "I commit myself, with God's help, to carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ to you, and to carry you to the Gospel." Bishop Murry, the first Jesuit and the first African-American to head the Youngstown Diocese in its 64-year history, received a warm welcome from the congregation. As one parish director of religious education put it, there were "smiles a mile wide on every face all day long" at the new bishop's presence and demeanor.

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