YOUNGSTOWN — Bishop David Bonnar of the Diocese of Youngstown will be among 180 bishops from around the world who will participate in a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

On Monday, Bonnar will celebrate Holy Mass with the pope at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The meeting with the pope will conclude a week of formation for new bishops that began Monday.

Officials said this year’s Corso Annuale Di Formazione Per I Nuovi Vescovi (the Annual Course for the Formation of New Bishops) includes bishops ordained between 2019 and 2022, as the formation program was delayed for several years because of the pandemic.

Bonnar mentioned he would be at the Vatican at a First Friday Club gathering Sept. 8 at Avion on the Water in Canfield, where he was the keynote speaker. The formation program is offered this year in several groupings.

The pope appointed Bonnar the sixth bishop of Youngstown on Nov. 17, 2020, and he was ordained and installed as bishop on Jan. 12, 2021, at St. Columba Cathedral.

As he prepares to meet with the pope, Bonnar said “I have spent much of my short Episcopate focusing on the Holy Father’s ‘The Joy of the Gospel.’ I cannot even begin to put into words the joy in my heart, knowing that I will meet this holy man who is calling us to a renewed encounter with Jesus and a deeper realization of our journey together through the Synod on Synodality.”

Officials said “The Joy of the Gospel” was the Pope’s apostolic exhortation released in 2013, in the first year of his papacy, providing a vision for church life and mission. In 2021, Francis convened a global Synod, beginning first with a local phase of discussions and prayer in each diocese, including the diocese of Youngstown, that will continue through the Synod of Bishops in Rome in 2023.

From Rome, Bonnar wrote to the people of the Diocese of Youngstown,”I realize I am far from my diocese, but in this experience, I feel so close to you and the entire Church.”

Bonnar said during the formation week, the new bishops have gathered at the International College of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome, near the Vatican, and have reflected on the theme, ”To Announce the Gospel in the Changing Epoch and After the Pandemic: The Service of Bishops.”

The formation week has included seminars led by Vatican officials and theologians, as well as time for fellowship among the new bishops.

Reflecting on the experience from Rome, Bonnar said “In a real sense, we are experiencing a global view of the church. Our first Mass together was very moving. We began Holy Mass singing a hymn to the Holy Spirit. I looked around at my brother bishops, and I was struck by how the Holy Spirit had already come among us by virtue of the call we received from the Holy Father to be a successor to the Apostles. At the same time, I was reminded of just how much we need that Spirit every day in our lives as we aspire to be good shepherds for those whom we serve.”

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