Joseph Richard Kopacz
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Born: September 16, 1950 Bishop of Jackson, 2014-Present |
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| English | Arms impaled. Dexter: Or, a cross potent Gules; a base bary wavy of four Azure and Argent. Sinister: Tierced per graft, Gules, Argent and Azure; to chief dexter, upon an open volume of the second, edged Or, a broadsword, tip to base of the last; to chief sinister a rose of the first, barbed and seeded Proper; in base, upon a sunburst of the fourth a Chi-Rho of the first. |
Origin/meaning
As common in US episcopal heraldry, the arms show the arms of the diocese impaled with the personal arms of the bishop.
The arms are composed three sections being red, silver and blue. The section to the upper left has an open book, of The Scriptures, on which is place a gold sword. The sword relates to the letter to the Hebrews 4:12. The Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double edged sword; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Likewise this relates to Paul’s admonition in the 6th Chapter of his Letter to the Ephesians, where he instructs the followers of Christ to put on the armor of God to fight with the sword and The Word of The Spirit against all of the tactics of The Devil and his actions in the world.
The second section shows a red rose on a silver field to honor Our Blessed Mother, in her title of Our Lady of Guadalupe, to whom The Bishop has particular devotion, especially as she is Queen of Mexico and Empress of The Americas. Likewise the rose symbolizes life at all stages of human development until its fulfillment in eternity.
The third section is blue with a gold sunburst, taken from the arms of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, who named Bishop Kopacz to be advanced to the Order of Bishop, and upon the sunburst are the Greek letters Chi and Rho, a traditional representation of the name of Jesus. It is with this symbolism that His Excellency, Bishop Kopacz expresses, with his episcopal motto, FIAT LUX, taken from the 3rd verse of the 1st Chapter of the Book of Genesis, which translated from the Latin means, “let there be light,” that Jesus, the Christ, is the light that must come through the work of all Christians for their own and for the salvation of the world.
The achievement is completed with the heraldic insignia of a prelate of the rank of bishop by instruction of the Holy See, of March 1969, confirmed in March 2001.
Literature: https://jacksondiocese.org
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