Jesuitical

It’s not surprising that most Catholics—especially young Catholics—don’t personally know their bishops. Sure, they might have put some oil on your forehead at confirmation and made you worry about what it would do to your acne problem (this is 100 percent hypothetical), but otherwise, you’re busy, and bishops are in charge of a zillion things and a zillion people. And even if you get to sit down with them, it’s probably in a formal setting where everyone is doing their best to look buttoned up. Our guest this week is Mychael Schilmoeller. She works in pastoral care at St. Michael’s Church in Prior Lake, Minn., in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. She also was part of a delegation of young adults who accompanied their bishops on their “ad limina” visit to Rome to meet with Pope Francis. That means she got to spend a lot of time with her bishops. Like, jet-lagged, layover-in-the-airport kind of down time. Long Italian dinners kind of time. We talk to her about what it was like to get to accompany he