In his gospel, St. Luke narrates the call of Simon, the fisherman whom Jesus changes, both in name and in vocation. The whole narrative is Luke 5: 1-11. Jesus suggests that the overworked fisherman lower his nets or "put out into the deep" for a catch. Despite their having worked all night and caught nothing, they do so -- "at your word, I shall lower the net." And the nets are overflowing with fish. The miraculous catch causes Simon, whom Jesus named Peter, and his companions to "leave everything and follow Jesus." And Jesus changes the fishermen into fishers of men, and ultimately, into shepherds of His flock.

This gospel passage is where our new archbishop found the inspiration for his episcopal motto when he was ordained a bishop in 2018.

While the invitation of Jesus is to the apostles and their successors, the bishops, note that immediately Luke speaks of those who were working with Peter, James, and John in their fishing business. So, you and I will need to assist Archbishop Henning in the call to evangelize, which we all receive at baptism.

This special section will introduce you to our new archbishop. He has been very generous with his time, answering questions, providing IDs and explanations of photos, and telling us who he is as a disciple of Christ, as a priest, and a bishop.

Articles throughout the special will introduce you to our new archbishop, his family and friends, and to the ministries and people who have become part of his life over the years.

Others will explain the sometimes-arcane aspects of the bishop's life and ministry; explain terms that sometimes need a bit more explanation and context, and give some historical perspective to this special section.

Our small but hardworking staff assembled this special section, even while producing our excellent weekly newspaper, and several substantial other special sections. Many people from Rockville Centre and Providence assisted us. Archbishop Henning's Rockville Centre's friends and brother priests eagerly gave interviews, and you can see from the articles.

Our editor, Antonio Enrique, trusts his staff, yet keeps a sharp eye on things -- that's what editors are supposed to do -- which inevitably helps make our regular newspaper and special sections excellent sources for both "information and formation."

Greg Tracy brings his own expertise. As if he doesn't' have enough to do as the managing editor, he has become our -- and others -- "go-to photographer."

Nan Wilkins, our production editor, brings everyone else's work together and spends hours, often overtime hours, assembling, arranging, rearranging, placing, and even editing texts, photos, graphics, charts: what you see is the result of her time and artistic eye.

Maria de Pilar Guzman is our proofreader and has saved all of us from embarrassing misspellings, oversights, and grammatical faults.

Our indefatigable reporter, Wes Cipolla, is on the scene, visiting people and sites for his stories; always submitted within and well before deadlines -- any editor's dream.

Someone needs to keep track of income and expenses and keep us within budget, that falls to Ernesto Cuevas, who manages not only The Pilot financials but also those of our collaborators at Pilot Printing and Pilot Bulletins.

Our advertising manager, Dan Maguire, brings in advertising at a rate that helps us produce the weekly paper and the specials such as this one. It's always important to point out the advertisers, whose support keeps us producing your archdiocesan newspaper. As they support us by advertising, please, give them your support by patronizing them. And mention you saw their ad in The Pilot.

Getting these special sections to you falls to your scribe. That most irksome word "deadline" is in the back of my mind no matter how much lead time there is. Sometimes, I must use it to get things done, usually not "in house."

As you can see this extraordinary special of 108 pages -- the largest any of us can recall having produced over the past years -- takes the work of many but principally this publication's staff.

Lastly, I am not out the way, I hope, in speaking for our entire staff, in welcoming to The Pilot, our new publisher as well as our new Archbishop Richard G. Henning.