Bishop Mariann Budde is now among the religious potraits painted by Fr. William Hart McNichols
Inspiring Facebook message published by Father James Martin S.J.
Thank you for sharing this, Fr. James. Your voice is so welcome during this time when many of us are distressed by the chilling silence of church leaders. (Response by Carlos Sanders)This is so beautiful - both the image and the reflection. God bless Bishop Mariann Budde. She is a hero for our time, and will be numbered among the Saints. (Response by Monica Soule)
Thanks to the artist Fr. William Hart McNichols for this beautiful new image of Bishop Mariann Budde, which he has shared with me. 
“How how long, Lord, shall the wicked,
How long shall the wicked glory?
How long will they mouth haughty speeches,
Go on boasting, all these evildoers?
They crushed your people, Lord,
Torment your very own,
They kill the widow and alien; the orphan they murder.
They say, the Lord does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice…
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
If the Lord were not my help, I would have long been silent in the grave.
When I say, my foot is slipping, your mercy, Lord holds me up…”
(Psalm 94)
“Nothing worth doing, can be achieved in a lifetime, therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing that is true and beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history, therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however, virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore we are saved by love.”
(Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian)
I rarely paint an image of a living person--maybe twice so far, but this time I felt compelled.
I have this stirring painting in a book about the art of Pietro Annigoni from the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua. The painting I’m referring to now, is called “St. Anthony meets the tyrant Ezzelino da Romano.” The book’s notes say, “Friar Anthony went to Verona to bring a message of peace and a petition for the prisoners, to the fierce Ezzelino, but the trip was a failure.”
When I study this picture, I look at the tyrant, dressed in red, leaning forward to condescend to hear Friar Anthony. The tyrant is on top of several stairs and he’s gripping one side of a chair just like El Greco’s painting of the inquisitor Guevara, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Anthony is staring quietly at the tyrant, and one of the things I love most about this painting of Anthony, is he has a smoking halo, which wafts off his head. He’s holding a book, probably the Scriptures, but not gripping it with the same ferocity as the tyrant. That gesture says a lot and the book is red. Anthony’s mouth is slightly open, his eyes show a broken heart and also fear, but I don’t think the fear is for himself; it’s for what is going to happen to the tyrant when he’s judged by our Heavenly Father. The tyrant personifies evil, and this painting shows that speaking to evil often has this powerful effect of sorrow (or Divine Pathos) on the poor prophet sent by God to speak to the tyrants, of any nation or any time.
I came to know of Bishop Mariann first because she reached out to Matthew Shepard’s* family because they were afraid to bury his remains, rightfully so, because they thought the remains would be vandalized or destroyed.
The bishop offered them a place in the National Cathedral of Washington DC, where they could bury their son. And now it has become a kind of shrine for all LGBTQ people to come and grieve over the tragic death of Matthew or of someone they knew, who died tragically from a pandemic or from violence.
Then I read about the Bishop commenting on a president using one of her churches, or a church in her diocese, St. John’s, for a photo op, holding the Bible, without knowing that the Bible he was holding was upside down. Her outrage was because of someone standing in front of one of her churches, whose interest was merely "political"--in the worst possible way.
Now, I grew up with that word meaning “my Dad” [Fr. Bill's father was a governor of Colorado] and I had no negative feelings about that word until I heard other people using it, as if it was always bad. And then I learned people say the word "Catholic," in the same way. And many words have been distorted, made to mean something the word never meant, like the word liberal, or conservative; and we all know the incredible power of words.
Scripture tells us we will have to be responsible for every word that comes out of our mouth. I’m sure I’m not the only one who cringes at that thought. And I’m always trying to do better. It often bothers me that our curse words have taken over much of our conversations, and I used to tell kids in Taos that words are colors, and they were only using white and black.
Quite simply, our language has become so crude, so nasty, so repetitive, boring and so predictable.
A servant of God, like this Bishop, must use words very carefully. It’s one of the things I most admire about her. And to me, she resembles very much St. Anthony in front of the tyrant. And I hope she knows that St. Anthony was a considered a failure on that mission to Verona. But we all know who Anthony is, and yet, who remembers the tyrant?
When she addressed the newly elected president and his entire entourage, I couldn’t help but think that the word of God is like Scripture says, as sharp as a two-edged sword, and someone, someone right there that day, listening to her, will be wounded by the word of God and will not forget.
Our Lady of Medjugorje, says that one person can change the world, or make a very significant difference.
I choose to honor Bishop Mariann with this image. It can’t be an icon until she is not with us anymore, and we need her so much right now.
The tongues of fire at Pentecost, caused the elimination of fear in the apostles. It also had them speaking to tyrants. While painting this image, I was listening to the Bishop’s new book, “How We Learn To Be Brave.” It’s full of stories of people who were afraid, afraid to act, afraid say the truth, afraid for their reputations and lives, especially speaking to a tyrant. And yet they spoke out in the midst of their very real fear.
“I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him, nor knows him; you know him, before he dwells with you, and will be in you.”
(John 14: 16-17)
Fr William Hart McNichols
February 2025
More about Bill here: Saint Andrei Rublev Icons- by Fr. William Hart McNichols and more about the image here: https://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/.../holy-living...
*Matthew Wayne Shepard was an American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on October 6, 1998. He was transported by rescuers to Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado, where he died six days later from severe head injuries sustained during the attack.
Here is his reflection on his new painting:
"Holy Living Prophet Bishop Mariann"
“Now as the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place; and suddenly they came from the sky, a noise like the blowing of a great wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And they saw what was like separate tongues of fire, and one settled on each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they began to speak in different languages according as the Spirit gave each one the gift of speaking them.”“How how long, Lord, shall the wicked,
How long shall the wicked glory?
How long will they mouth haughty speeches,
Go on boasting, all these evildoers?
They crushed your people, Lord,
Torment your very own,
They kill the widow and alien; the orphan they murder.
They say, the Lord does not see; the God of Jacob takes no notice…
Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against evildoers?
If the Lord were not my help, I would have long been silent in the grave.
When I say, my foot is slipping, your mercy, Lord holds me up…”
(Psalm 94)
“Nothing worth doing, can be achieved in a lifetime, therefore we must be saved by hope. Nothing that is true and beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history, therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however, virtuous, can be accomplished alone therefore we are saved by love.”
(Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian)
I rarely paint an image of a living person--maybe twice so far, but this time I felt compelled.
I have this stirring painting in a book about the art of Pietro Annigoni from the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua. The painting I’m referring to now, is called “St. Anthony meets the tyrant Ezzelino da Romano.” The book’s notes say, “Friar Anthony went to Verona to bring a message of peace and a petition for the prisoners, to the fierce Ezzelino, but the trip was a failure.”
When I study this picture, I look at the tyrant, dressed in red, leaning forward to condescend to hear Friar Anthony. The tyrant is on top of several stairs and he’s gripping one side of a chair just like El Greco’s painting of the inquisitor Guevara, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Anthony is staring quietly at the tyrant, and one of the things I love most about this painting of Anthony, is he has a smoking halo, which wafts off his head. He’s holding a book, probably the Scriptures, but not gripping it with the same ferocity as the tyrant. That gesture says a lot and the book is red. Anthony’s mouth is slightly open, his eyes show a broken heart and also fear, but I don’t think the fear is for himself; it’s for what is going to happen to the tyrant when he’s judged by our Heavenly Father. The tyrant personifies evil, and this painting shows that speaking to evil often has this powerful effect of sorrow (or Divine Pathos) on the poor prophet sent by God to speak to the tyrants, of any nation or any time.
I came to know of Bishop Mariann first because she reached out to Matthew Shepard’s* family because they were afraid to bury his remains, rightfully so, because they thought the remains would be vandalized or destroyed.
The bishop offered them a place in the National Cathedral of Washington DC, where they could bury their son. And now it has become a kind of shrine for all LGBTQ people to come and grieve over the tragic death of Matthew or of someone they knew, who died tragically from a pandemic or from violence.
Then I read about the Bishop commenting on a president using one of her churches, or a church in her diocese, St. John’s, for a photo op, holding the Bible, without knowing that the Bible he was holding was upside down. Her outrage was because of someone standing in front of one of her churches, whose interest was merely "political"--in the worst possible way.
Now, I grew up with that word meaning “my Dad” [Fr. Bill's father was a governor of Colorado] and I had no negative feelings about that word until I heard other people using it, as if it was always bad. And then I learned people say the word "Catholic," in the same way. And many words have been distorted, made to mean something the word never meant, like the word liberal, or conservative; and we all know the incredible power of words.
Scripture tells us we will have to be responsible for every word that comes out of our mouth. I’m sure I’m not the only one who cringes at that thought. And I’m always trying to do better. It often bothers me that our curse words have taken over much of our conversations, and I used to tell kids in Taos that words are colors, and they were only using white and black.
Quite simply, our language has become so crude, so nasty, so repetitive, boring and so predictable.
A servant of God, like this Bishop, must use words very carefully. It’s one of the things I most admire about her. And to me, she resembles very much St. Anthony in front of the tyrant. And I hope she knows that St. Anthony was a considered a failure on that mission to Verona. But we all know who Anthony is, and yet, who remembers the tyrant?
When she addressed the newly elected president and his entire entourage, I couldn’t help but think that the word of God is like Scripture says, as sharp as a two-edged sword, and someone, someone right there that day, listening to her, will be wounded by the word of God and will not forget.
Our Lady of Medjugorje, says that one person can change the world, or make a very significant difference.
I choose to honor Bishop Mariann with this image. It can’t be an icon until she is not with us anymore, and we need her so much right now.
The tongues of fire at Pentecost, caused the elimination of fear in the apostles. It also had them speaking to tyrants. While painting this image, I was listening to the Bishop’s new book, “How We Learn To Be Brave.” It’s full of stories of people who were afraid, afraid to act, afraid say the truth, afraid for their reputations and lives, especially speaking to a tyrant. And yet they spoke out in the midst of their very real fear.
“I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him, nor knows him; you know him, before he dwells with you, and will be in you.”
(John 14: 16-17)
Fr William Hart McNichols
February 2025More about Bill here: Saint Andrei Rublev Icons- by Fr. William Hart McNichols and more about the image here: https://frbillmcnichols-sacredimages.com/.../holy-living...
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