Bishop Anthony Basil Taylor
Seventh Bishop of Little Rock
Bishop Anthony Basil Taylor was ordained the seventh bishop for the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock on June 5, 2008 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. Archbishop Eusebius J. Beltran of Oklahoma City was principal consecrator. Bishops J. Peter Sartain of Joliet, Ill. and Edward Slattery of Tulsa, Okla. were co-consecrators. More than 3,400 people attended the three-hour celebration held in the Governor's Hall.
During the ordination, Bishop Taylor told the assembly: “In all of you I have experienced what Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12:26, ‘If one of the parts of the Body of Christ are honored, all the parts share its joy.’”
Bishop Taylor wears the episcopal ring of the diocese's first bishop, Andrew J. Byrne and carries the pastoral staff of the fourth bishop, Albert L. Fletcher.
His episcopal motto is "The Humble Shall Inherit the Earth." It is taken from Psalm 37:11 and is quoted by Jesus in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:5.
He said humble in the motto should be understood in the sense of the underlying Hebrew word Anawim. In English, humble and meek describe a person's attitude, but the Hebrew refers also to humble circumstances, being marginalized by external factors of poverty and bigotry.
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