BISHOP SHEPHERDS VALLEY `CHANGE THE WORLD' WILKERSON DOES HIS PART AS SPIRITUAL LEADER.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Bishop Gerald Wilkerson ushered the next generation of teens into Catholic adulthood with a time-honored message: Know Jesus.

And, he told them, work to straighten out a world that's sometimes upside down.

``We need you to turn it right-side up,'' exhorted Wilkerson, wading into pews full of teens at a confirmation Mass this weekend at St. Finbar Catholic Church in Burbank. ``Don't you think it's time to stop the violence, the hate, the prejudice, the injustice in our world?

``Who's going to do it? We need to do it. We need to be the ones who are going to change the world, to turn it right-side up ... with the power of Jesus.''

Today, as Benedict XVI is installed as Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church, bishops like Wilkerson stand ready to embrace the new pope's philosophy and translate his message to the realities of life in their parishes.

For Wilkerson, hailed by many as a master pastor, that means bringing the warmth of his personality to the 54 parishes, two hospitals and close to a million Catholics he shepherds as the bishop for the San Fernando Valley and North Los Angeles County.

While Catholics consider the pope the ultimate bridge builder in Rome, many credit Wilkerson for helping to unite families, priests and fellow bishops at home.

And while Benedict XVI has been known for his dogged enforcement of church doctrine, many hail the man still known as ``Father Gerry'' for warmly beckoning Catholics into every aspect of their faith.

``Absolutely amazing,'' Vic Feraci, 73, of Encino said of his former pastor at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in Encino. ``The virtue that this man had ... you wanted to be a Catholic.''

To former parishioners, he's a pastor known for turning a chilly parish into a welcome spiritual sanctuary.

To fellow bishops, he's the pastor of the heart who led them to learn from one another.

And to Cardinal Roger Mahony, Wilkerson has risen to the administrative needs of burgeoning Catholics while spearheading closer collaboration between all levels of the church.

``Bishop Gerald Wilkerson has given extraordinary pastoral leadership to the San Fernando Pastoral Region,'' said Mahony in a statement last week from Rome. ``And I am most grateful to him for every aspect of his generous and committed ministry.''

But for the 62-year-old auxiliary bishop for the San Fernando Pastoral Region - which includes the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys - it's lonely at top.

He said it's lonely not making the rounds of the sick. The homebound. The spiritually needy.

For he's a shepherd through and through, say church officials and former parishioners, in need of calling each name of his hungry flock.

``A lot of times I wake up in the morning and say to myself, don't get out of bed, you've been beating your head against the wall for weeks now, nobody's paying attention, it's a lost cause - the world is not changing, you're not reaching anybody, just give it up,'' said the high-ranking reverend to his Burbank teenagers in a church filled with hundreds of proud parents and siblings.

``But you know why I come to confirmation? You energize me, you strengthen me. I need you to say to me, `Bishop, you're not alone, we'll do it together. C'mon.'

``We need to do it together. I need your usefulness, I need your vitality, I need you to energize me - change me.''

A native of Iowa raised in Long Beach, Wilkerson had looked up to the priests at his Catholic high school. They seemed happy, he thought. And had purpose.

In the late 1950s, he entered St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, unaware that centuries of tradition would soon be altered with Vatican II.

By the age of 25, grandfathers addressed him as ``father.''

And by the time he got his first job as pastor at Our Lady of Grace in 1985, he could call into action what he calls the marks of a good priest - understanding, compassion, patience - and a good dose of humor.

For Wilkerson would need them to turn around a parish under the rule of an aging monsignor best known for scolding anyone late to Mass, many longtime parishioners said.

Wilkerson met with families with an ear to how to build a better church. He called up volunteers. He set up coffee and doughnuts after Mass to stem the exodus to the parking lot.

He founded a ministry to encourage lay people to participate in the Mass and to visit the sick and feeble at hospitals and in their homes.

He performed church maintenance. He even let the monsignor live in his rectory suite.

Soon the pews began to fill with formerly disenchanted Catholics who drove from across Los Angeles to hear homilies peppered with wisdom and wit.

``He made our parish a family-oriented parish,'' said Ed Cavanaugh, 83, of Encino. ``Families were important. He remembered the names of children. He met with small groups of families in homes.

``I had never witnessed that sort of interaction. People would no longer kill each other to get to the parking lot.''

In 1997, Wilkerson said, he was flabbergasted to be named a bishop by Pope John Paul II and assigned by Mahony to head the San Fernando Pastoral Region.

Since then, his fellow bishops have come to respect Wilkerson's ability to unify his church. He soon organized meetings of fellow bishops and formed a new Regional Pastoral Council.

``He has always been a pastor, he has the heart of a pastor and has the keen insights of a pastor,'' said Bishop Gabino Zavala of the San Gabriel Region. ``Someone who knows his people, who walks among and is with them, who experiences their joy and sadness.

``He could be a community organizer in the vein of Jesus.''

A serious man with a soft twinkle and deep laugh, Wilkerson rises each day for an hour and a half of meditation and devotion.

Though strict about some of the tenets of his church - its ban on abortion - he abhors judgment.

``In the seminary, everybody fits into a box,'' said the silver-haired priest from his office next to the San Fernando Mission. ``But there are no boxes.

``Not judgment, but compassion ... let's walk together for a while, we'll learn from each other.''

The most difficult challenge for his church, he said, is the struggle to adhere to the teachings of Jesus in a culture he said has lost its moral rudder.

But that doesn't prevent him from reaching into his quiver of reverent - and not so reverent - quips.

``If anyone attacks me from the rear, fight 'em off,'' said Wilkerson to an altar girl before the confirmation service Friday.

``If I fall, catch me.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Bishop Gerald Wilkerson gives the sacrament of confirmation to Jimmy Dao, 17, during a special Mass on Friday at St. Finbar Catholic Church in Burbank. Wilkerson sees incoming Pope Benedict XVI as a ``bridge builder'' for the church. The cross Bishop Wilkerson wears was given to him by Pope John Paul II.

(3 -- color) Bishop Gerald Wilkerson greets parishioners as he leaves St. Finbar Catholic Church in Burbank after a special Mass to bestow the sacrament of confirmation on teens. ``We need to be the ones who are going to change the world, to turn it right-side up,'' he told the teens.

(4 -- color) ``Who's going to do it? We need to do it. We need to be the ones who are going to change the world, to turn it right-side up ... with the power of Jesus,'' Bishop Wilkerson said.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer