July 14 -- Feast of Saint Deusdedit of Canterbury

Archbishop Deusdedit got a nod in the post about Saint Theodore of Canterbury, but not much was said about him except that his death created the vacancy that brought Ted to England.  Then again, there's not much more to say about him on his own feast day.

     Rule Britannia -- Deusdedit was a homegrown primate!

He was a priest from Wessex, originally named Frithona, and he was consecrated by Ithamar, Bishop of Rochester.  The big deal is probably that he was the first English Archbishop of Canterbury.  All the others had come from Rome, as did Deusdedit's successor, Theodore.  Ted's successor, however, was another native, Berhtwald.  After Berht, the natives have the run of the place until Billy the Tanner's Bastard takes over the island in 1066.  The one exception may be Oda (Archbishop from 941 to 958), who might have been the son of a Danish invader.

The balance between native talent and expert leadership is a tough thing.  The USA is approaching a point where Catholics might expect to see foreign-born bishops appointed, simply because the priesthood is increasingly unattractive in the USA.  Maybe I am overstating it, but one-third of the ordinations of priests in the USA were of foreign-born seminarians, according to CatholicCulture.org.    On the positive side, it's easier to remember the global family when you're listening to someone from away.  On the negative side, when that fella from away is telling you something you don't want to hear, especially when it is a criticism of your own way of doing things, it can rankle a lot more.  General Rafael Trujillo didn't much like criticism from anyone, but he really didn't like it from Archbishop Ricardo Pittini (who came from Italy) and Bishop Thomas Reilly (who came from Boston, Massachusetts).  Americans might not be quite as volatile as General Trujillo (yet), but they have a hard time receiving criticism from foreigners.  Still, if they don't like it, they'll either have to pressure the Church to make the priesthood more appealing to native-born Americans or rely more heavily on deacons who can administer some of the duties of priests with only some of the restrictions.