GREEN BAY (AP) — Green Bay’s new Catholic bishop livened his installation ceremony by breaking into song during his sermon with parts of a couple country songs — including one called “Drop Kick Me, Jesus.”

Bishop David Ricken, former bishop of Cheyenne, Wyo., first told the assembled church leaders, family members and others from the Green Bay and Cheyenne dioceses about traveling to his Cheyenne assignment after being ordained a bishop.
As he drove, he was listening to Mozart’s “Ave Verum,” but he began wondering what music appealed to Wyoming residents.

“I switched on the radio, and this is what I heard,” Ricken said, then started singing Conway Twitty’s “Truck Drivin’ Man.”

“Pour me another cup of coffee/ For it is the best in the land/ And put a nickel in the jukebox/ And play the truck drivin’ man.”

After the roars of laughter died, Ricken said he was making another shift of cultures with his move to Wisconsin, where “I understand there’s a famous football team” — referring, of course, to the Green Bay Packers — and it reminded him of another song.

Then he launched into Bobby Bare’s “Drop Kick Me, Jesus.”

“Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goal posts of life/ End over end neither left nor to right/ Straight through the heart of them righteous uprights/ Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goal posts of life.”

After more laughter, Ricken said he actually felt the song carries “a certain profundity,” and he went on with a sermon focused on St. Augustine’s discovery of meaning through the teachings of Christ.

He ended the sermon with “God bless you and let the drop kick begin.”

With his installation, he becomes the new leader for more than 350,000 Catholics in a 16-county area.

Ricken takes over for Bishop David Zubik who was reassigned about a year ago to his original Pittsburgh diocese.

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