For his personal arms, Bishop Garcia-Siller selected a device that draws upon his religious life, his particular devotions and his ministry within the church.

Upon a green field is seen a large gold plate, called a “bezant,” on which are displayed a stylized dove amid a scattering (seme) of tongues of fire, in red and orange. (View larger image) The red tongues of fire and the dove symbolize the bishop’s religious family, the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. The orange tongues of flame are emblematic of the flames of the Great Chicago Fire, the community of God’s holy people gathered in Chicago, whom Bishop Garcia-Siller has been called to serve. Below the bezant is a silver crescent to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception.

For his motto, Bishop Garcia-Siller uses a phrase that is both English and Spanish. The phrase “Ven Holy Spirit Ven” symbolizes that it is to all people, especially those that speak English and Spanish in Chicago, that the bishop has been called to serve. As a man who has dedicated his life to the church in the ministry of the Holy Spirit, it sums up all of what Bishop Garcia-Siller is and has been all about, by saying, ever so briefly, “Come, Holy Spirit, Come.”

 

For his personal arms, Bishop Kane has selected a design that reflects his life and his heritage.

On a silver shield is seen an inverted chevron, from top to bottom, known as a “pile.” (View larger image) On this pile are seen a staff surmounted by a lily, a traditional symbol for St. Joseph, an open, pierced hand, of St. Francis of Assisi, who was known to have borne the stigmata, and a fish from the Kane family arms. By the use of these, Bishop Kane honors his heritage. The silver mound in the base of the design is to depict the hill at Knock, site of the Marian apparition, where the bishop’s grandparents are buried and which was the bishop’s mother’s family parish.

To either side of the pile are a blue anchor and a blue bear, rampant (on his hind legs). These are to honor the two prelates that have been so influential in the bishop’s priestly career, Cardinal George and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin.

For his motto, Bishop Kane has selected “Thy Kingdom Come.” This phrase, which we all recite every day in “The Lord’s Prayer,” expresses in the most concise way that all that we are, all that we will be and all that we do, is toward the end of our salvation and the reign of God here on earth.

 

For his personal arms, Bishop Paprocki has selected a design that reflects his life of priestly service within the Archdiocese of Chicago.

On a green field is seen a golden lattice, a device in which many individual slats come to form a single, integrated device of strength far greater than all of its components. (View larger image) By the use of this, Bishop Paprocki expresses that all aspects of Christian life—theology, church law and civil law, social involvement— form the framework of the total Christian. On the lattice is displayed a black circular device on which is displayed a silver cross patee. The cross has been determined to be the “clan symbol” of the Paprocki family in Poland and by its use the bishop acknowledges with great love and devotion, the heritage that has come to him from his parents.

The upper third of the design, known as a chief, is blue to honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the center is a Sacred Heart in silver and gold, showing that it was through the suffering of a loving heart that Christ saved all mankind. The Sacred Heart is placed between two silver pan-balances to signify that Bishop Paprocki is both a civil and a canon lawyer.

For his motto Bishop Paprocki has selected the Latin phrase “Lex Cordis Caritas.” This phrase, based on texts from Jeremiah, St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans and the Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium 9), expresses Bishop Paprocki’s profound belief, as both a civil and a canon lawyer, that, truly, “the law of the heart is love.”

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Each bishop’s personal coat of arms is completed with the external ornaments, which are a gold processional cross, which is placed in back of the shield and which extends above and below the shield, and a pontifical hat, called a “gallero,” with its six tassels, in three rows, on either side of the shield, all in green. These are the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See. —designed by Deacon Paul J. Sullivan of the Diocese of Providence, R.I.

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