Louisiana at this time of year should have been about 83 degrees Fahrenheit, but today the temperature did not rise above 43 or so. The three priests wore the same jackets all year round, with layers in their knapsacks for warm. With the beginning of the new ice age, most plants which needed temperate or hot temperatures had died. The other plants struggled, as the cold brought rain, ice and snow to most parts of the northern and central states and intermittently to the southern parts.
The central administration of the Catholic Church had moved to Texas, although bishops were encouraged to stay in their dioceses as long as they could work in safety. The East was in schism as the National American Catholic Church. Only two bishops had refused to join the large group, and they were missing. One of the missing was a cardinal. This church was really run from the underground global government, but most schismatic Catholics still had not come to that realization.
That this meeting of the priests with some bishops was happening in a small town indicated the danger for many of those attending. The meeting would be in a private home, and priests had been given instructions to come at staggered times.
No one but a few knew that the subject of the meeting was the complete overhauling of the diocesan structures which had existed for over two-hundred years.
At exactly eight o'clock at night, a gathering of twenty-two priests and two bishops met at the house of the local doctor, Dr. Singh. The men were from all the states outside the Wilderness on the southern edge-in other words, from the Old South and a few states just south of the Mason-Dixon Line, There was one exception. Bishop John Brent of Lincoln had been in the south visiting his sister before going on a retreat when all the chaos happened. His was told by Rome to stay in Texas until further orders came. Those orders had finally come.
Bishop Brent, being the senior clergyman, chaired the meeting. "The Holy Father sent a letter to me and a copy to Bishop Jensen, who is also present, as you all can see, indicating his wishes to consolidate dioceses and dissolve dioceses which are no longer functioning.
We have made a map for each priest here. You can see that all the dioceses of Minnesota, Wisconsin, western Indiana, Illinois, except for Belleville, Illinois are all suppressed. Two dioceses remain in Missouri, St, Louis, although city was severely damaged by the floods, and Kansas City-St. Joseph. One diocese remains active in Kansas, and that is the Kansas City, Kansas diocese. As you all know, most of The Wilderness is now under the new, fast growing glaciation.
Other suppressed dioceses owing to the destruction in the Wilderness are all those in Iowa, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, western Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, and Idaho. Hawaii, being completely destroyed, is of course, suppressed. The Ecclesiatical Provinces of St. Paul and Minnesota, Miwaukee, Indianopolis, Los Angeles, Omaha, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Anchorage, Dubuque, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, are dissolved.
Those diocese which are not in The Wilderness, but under the military rule of the Chinese, that is, dioceses in the states of Alaska, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington and western Utah will be assumed as under siege. As far as the Pope knows, all the bishops are either in prison, or dead. We actually do not know. Three of the bishops which were in Arizona and New Mexico are safely in Texas.
Three new areas, new dioceses, will be covering the Pacific Coast, and one will combine western Utah and Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. New bishops, including auxiliaries, will be placed in authority in these new dioceses. I shall announce the names this evening of the priests who will be ordained bishops.
The Ecclesiastical Provinces of St. Paul and Minnesota, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Omaha, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle, Anchorage, Dubuque, Detroit, Chicago, Denver, are dissolved.
The Pope has left Oklahoma under the existing dioceses, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa, but has moved the see of the bishop to Tulsa, although the western part of the state has some Chinese occupation.
All the other dioceses will be left in the same diocesan administrations even though these are under martial law in the states not mentioned.
All other dioceses not mentioned remain in place, such as the Diocese of Little Rock and so on.
The Wilderness damage cannot be understood by those who have not seen the destruction caused by the nuclear blast. I myself have taken a trip with one other bishop, Bishop Kendall of Houston, to see the damage in some places. Let me only say that Dante's Inferno is now on earth. We can assume, as has the world, that no one who lived within the states affected by the direct blast and the weather patterns which forces the radioactive clouds into other states, that no one is alive in The Wilderness. We pray daily for the souls of all the faithful departed, even after all this time.
It has taken this long for the Pope to decide how to approach the problem of the bishops who are cooperating with the military rule of Washington run by the "globals", and those independent bishops. Of those bishops in the east who have created a shadow church, I shall not discuss at this meeting. In the future, however, it is the will of the Holy Father to send missionaries into military territory and rescue souls from the schism."
Here the bishop put down his papers and the map and directly addressed the small group.
"It is the intention of both Bishop Jensen and myself to ordain seven men this evening to take over some of those new diocesan administrative areas. We shall also give the names of those dioceses and administrative areas now.
The new dioceses and administrative areas are as follows, and I shall just list the city and state names. The Pope's expectation is that the new bishops will find their way to these places and set up some type of diocesan headquarters, even if underground. The new bishops will be missionaries in mission territories, as we do not know how many Catholics remain in these places. Some are in the enemy territory of the Chinese, some are at the edges of The Wasteland.
The dioceses are as follows: Ventura, and Tehama, covering all of California at this point; Tehema at the edge of the glaciation, is a temporary center; Jerome, Arizona; Magdalena, New Mexico; Goldfield, Nevada, and one new diocese in Higgins, Republic of Texas. One of these diocese will have an auxiliary bishop as well. I know that some of you are being sent into extremely dangerous territories."
The enormity of the changes slowly began to sink into the small group. That seven men would be made bishops for these new areas made some of the men nervous.
"Now, I ask you all to listen to Bishop Jensen on the men chosen by the Pope to set up these missionary dioceses and start up the Catholic Church, from scratch, as it were."
The two bishops changed places in the tense atmosphere of the small room. Bishop Jensen began by asking the priests to pray. Bowing their heads, some felt as if the responsibility of starting up missionary dioceses would be too difficult.
Bishop Jensen, a small and gentle man said this first, "If any man's name is announced and that man feels he cannot take on this duty, please do not nod your head in assent. I assure you, no one will think less of you. I ask you to nod in assent if you feel you can respond to the call of the Holy Father."
Philip Scott will be Bishop of Ventura. I already have his assent.
John Sikora, Auxiliary Bishop of Ventura. (John, a small man of about 40, nodded his head)
James Carter will be Bishop of Jerome. (James nodded in assent).
Edward Sczepanska, Bishop of Tehama. (Edward, a man of about fifty, nodded his head).
Thomas Bauer, Bishop of Higgins. (Thomas, a handsome man of about 50, nodded yes).
Thomas Gomez-Kappel, Bishop of Magdalena. (Thomas nodded. He looked just over the canonical age for a bishop).
Patrick Rebideux, Bishop of Goldfield. (Patrick, a large and striking Canjun nodded yes).
We shall now commence with Mass and the ordinations."
Antonio felt a bit ill. He was losing his great friend and mentor. And, he was losing the company of Philip Scott, who he had seen at least three times a year. He wondered who his new travelling companion would be.
To be continued.....