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Yesterday, I visited two Catholic Charities Community Services of Orange County sites. I blessed the new clinic at 305 North Street in Middletown. I also celebrated the 20th anniversary of Goshen’s Early Learning Center and gave a special blessing to the children attending the center. I would like to share with you some beautiful photos taken by Jeff Goulding of the Times Herald-Record.
In this week’s Catholic New York column, I wrote about the Easter season and renewing our faith.
Here is an excerpt:
Easter blessings!
I’m all for celebrating! We prepared for Easter with forty days of intense prayer, penance, and charity during Lent.
How about celebrating now for forty days—until Ascension Thursday—come to think of it, for fifty days—until Pentecost Sunday?
These ninety days—forty days of union with the suffering and death of Jesus during Lent, plus forty days of Easter joy, plus ten more days until Pentecost—are classic days of renewal for us who follow Jesus.
Even nature cooperates, as this grand season of the Church calendar takes place against the backdrop of the cold, dark, and dreary days of winter giving way to the warm, bright, vibrant days of spring.
You can read my whole column here.
A blessed Easter!
Thank you, brother priests, for confessions heard, sermons preached, converts welcomed, liturgies prepared!
Thank you, deacons, for standing next to our priests and people as they went through this Holy Week!
Thank you, religious women and men, quietly, yet effectively there these sacred moments!
Thank you, choirs, musicians; sacristans, lectors, ushers, servers, and all who made our rituals so moving!
Thank you, catechumens, candidates, catechists, and sponsors… and welcome to the Church!
Thank you, God’s People, for once again accepting God’s invitation to renewal, grace, and mercy!
Thank you, Pope Francis, for giving us such good example in moving sermons, your first Holy Week as our Pope!
Thank you, Jewish neighbors, for keeping Passover, reminding us powerfully, of God’s ancient promises of freedom!
“He has risen as He said, alleluia, alleluia!”
“This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it!”
It feels great to be back home! I would like to share with you my article on Holy Week and Passover that was recently published in the New York Daily News.
Here is an excerpt:
This upcoming week we will see both brutality and tender love in our churches and synagogues.
Our Jewish neighbors observe Passover, as they reverently recall how the Lord rescued them from brutal slavery in Egypt, and led them, with tender love, to freedom in the Promised Land.
We Christians, during Holy Week, somberly and prayerfully relive the brutal betrayal, torture, passion, Crucifixion and death of Jesus, and then, next Sunday, Easter, will rejoice that God Our Father’s tender love rescues Him from death and raises Him to a glorious new life, a life He wants to share with us.
You can read all of it here.
Obviously, our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, hadn’t been listening to the news.
If he had, he would have heard about the major “problems” facing the Church, and would have announced “changes” in the Church’s “policies” on abortion, birth control, celibacy for priests, condoms, women priests, and allowing divorce and remarriage.
Instead, when he came to his window overlooking St. Peter’s Square his first Sunday as Successor of St. Peter, to speak and pray with the 100,000 people below, he didn’t mention any of those issues at all.
Poor man is already “out of it!”
Instead, he spoke of God’s mercy. “God never gets tired of forgiving us,” he observed.
Mercy is one of the richest, most profound teachings of the Bible.
Two facts: one, we sin a lot; two, God forgives us once we tell Him we’re sorry.
“Give thanks to the Lord for He is good! For His mercy endures forever!”
God’s mercy is not just some fuzzy, vague idea. It is personally experienced in the Sacrament of Penance, as we admit our sins, confess them, ask God’s mercy, and receive it!
Today is Reconciliation Monday. In all our parishes, priests will be hearing confessions from 3-9 PM.
No better way to begin Holy Week and get ready for Easter, than by a good confession.
God’s mercy! It’s ours for the asking!
Listen to the Bible!
Listen to Jesus!
Listen to Pope Francis!
See you all in the confessional line. A blessed Holy Week!
It has been awesome taking part in the events in Rome these past three weeks, saying goodbye to Benedict, and then taking part in the conclave last week to elect Pope Francis. Today I will be joining our new Holy Father for his Mass of Installation, in Saint Peter’s Square. At the same time, I am sorry that I will not be able to join my brother bishops of New York State as they undertake two days of advocacy on important public policy issues in Albany, as well with as the nearly 1,000 Catholics from every part of our state who will join them Wednesday for Catholics at the Capitol. I do love Rome, but, boy, do I wish I could be with all of you in Albany.
Pope Francis has a reputation for intense devotion to the poor, of humility, of promoting the Culture of Life. That’s what we, as the Church, must be all about as well, and that is what we must bring in our meetings with our elected representatives in Albany.
I will certainly be with my brother bishops in spirit as they meet with Governor Cuomo, Senators Skelos and Klein, and Speaker Silver Tuesday afternoon to lay the ground work for Catholics at the Capitol by affirming the Church’s beautiful teaching on the dignity of every human person made in the image and likeness of Almighty God from the moment of conception until natural death.
And I will be praying for those committed advocates traveling to Albany to join with your bishops in proclaiming a great big Yes! to life, by working together to build a Culture of Life in New York by providing real choices for pregnant women and girls who may find themselves pressured to abort, and who so often suffer quietly for years afterward as a result. Surely, we can find some area of agreement among our elected leaders to help those who make the heroic choice to keep their babies, as well as those who have already aborted and need love, compassion and healing to move forward with their lives.
You will also uphold the Culture of Life and proclaim the dignity of every human person by fighting for the safety of all children, wherever their parents send them to school. We bishops stood in support of Gov. Cuomo in his stand for sensible gun control, but while the NY SAFE Act rightfully included money for public school safety, no such funding was included for religious or independent schools in that legislation. We worry about the message that this sends. We’re also grateful for those who supported our efforts to get full reimbursement for all of the state mandates on our schools.
And, of course, you will passionately advocate for more state funding for affordable housing and for health care for the poor and vulnerable, because these are basic human rights that preserve human dignity. And you will speak out as well for the dignity of those in our state’s prison system, because our Lord taught us very clearly that whatever we do for any of the least of our brothers and sisters, we truly do for Him.
Know that my brother bishops and all of our laity, religious and clergy doing this important work in Albany will hold a special place in my prayers these next few days, even if I cannot be there with you in person.
A blessed St. Joseph Day, Palm Sunday, Holy Week, and Easter!
Did I call it or what? While I obviously could not make any predictions about who would be chosen the Successor of St. Peter — – except to observe multiple times that those kind-but-misguided people betting on me were obviously sipping too much grappa — – I did remark that I thought the new Holy Father would choose the beautiful Feast of St. Joseph, March 19, for his first public Mass.
And that’s where I’ll be this morning at 9:30 AM Rome time: with 100,000 other people in St. Peter’s Square for the Mass of Inauguration of Pope Francis!
St. Joseph: the foster father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the patron saint of dads … and Pope Francis becomes the Holy Father of our earthly, spiritual family, the Church, on this holiday also observed as “Father’s Day” in Italy;
St. Joseph: the chaste spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary; Pope Frances loves her so much, traveling to the Shrine of Salus Populi Romani, “the Help of the People of Rome,” in the most venerable church dedicated to Our Lady, Saint Mary Major, the first morning after his election;
St. Joseph: Patron of the Church Universal; and now Pope Francis becomes the Pastor of the flock, the catholic, “universal” Church;
St. Joseph: the patron of workers, himself a carpenter; and our new pontiff, renowned for his closeness to the working men and women of his former Archdiocese of Buenos Aires;
St. Joseph: with a special care for the poor, always approached in prayer by those in want and need; and the new Bishop of Rome with such a reputation of solicitude for those in poverty;
St. Joseph: a man of complete trust in God’s will, as shown in the Gospel; and Pope Francis accepting his towering new task out of humble obedience to God’s plan;
St. Joseph: the protector of the Holy Family, his foster Son and virgin wife, leading them to safety in Egypt when the oppressive tyrant, King Herod, sought to kill the newborn Savior; and now our new Holy Father will become an ardent advocate of those persecuted, those forced from their homes, those oppressed for their faith;
St. Joseph: the man closest to Jesus, the man who knew Him first, loved Him most, and held Him closest; and now our Holy Father calling us to know, love, and serve Jesus … to friendship with Jesus;
St. Joseph: the patron saint of a happy death — – surrounded on his deathbed by Jesus and Mary; and now our new Pope speaking to us of eternal life;
In the Divine Office that we bishops, priests, deacons, religious sisters and brothers promise to pray daily, we reflect today upon the words of St. Bernard, who applied them to St. Joseph: God never calls us to something without giving us the grace to do it!
That’s our prayer for Pope Francis: the Holy Spirit has called him to be our Holy Father; through the intercession of Saint Joseph, may our new Successor of St. Peter trust that God will indeed lavishly supply the Grace he needs!
After his appearance on the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis returned to the Domus Sancta Maria where we cardinals had all resided during the conclave (By the way, his limousine, with proper security escort, stood ready to chauffeur him back to the Domus, but, he got on the bus and rode back with all of us!).
There we had, as you might imagine, a rather festive supper. At its conclusion, a senior cardinal toasted the new Holy Father. Pope Francis stood to reply. His toast to the cardinals who had just elected him as Successor of St. Peter? “May God forgive you!”
This of course brought the house down. He then told us what he planned to do the following day, and ended by saying, “And sometime tomorrow I’ll have to stop by the Casa del Clero (a pensión for priests visiting Rome where he had been staying before the conclave) to pick up my baggage and pay my bill!
A simple observation, but it made me think: this man, seventy-six years old, will now have to move from his beloved Argentina to Rome.
Pope Francis is moving… and the Church herself is always on the move. That’s because the Church is missionary! In His parting words to His disciples, Jesus told them to “Go out to all the world!”
A man named Patrick once did that. You know the story: born probably in England (although the Italians claim he came from here in Italy!), he was kidnapped as a boy and sold into servitude in Ireland. There he came to know and love the people of that verdant, tiny island, as rough and contentious as they were, and longed to teach them the faith he had learned as a child. Even when he escaped and returned home, he could not get Ireland out of his mind, and, so, later went on the move as a bishop back to the damp turf that now claims him as patron. There, he brought the Name, message, and invitation of Jesus and His one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. St. Patrick was a missionary.
When, during the years 1845-1851, the blight and famine hit Ireland — – literally “like a plague,” resulting in the starvation of approximately two million or more people, what historians call “the greatest disaster in peace time human history” — – the people of Ireland were “on the move” in a scattering, a diaspora often compared to that of Jews from Israel after the Roman onslaught of 70 AD.
These Irish on the move, these emaciated sons and daughters of St. Patrick, came by the hundreds of thousands to the United States, with nothing of earthly value but the clothes on their back, and fond, yet tearful, memories of the people and the land they cherished, but with something of heavenly value, a “pearl of great price” in their Catholic faith. While the woman called the Statue of Liberty was not yet there in the harbor to welcome them to America, another woman was, one called Holy Mother Church. And we are proud and grateful heirs to those Irish on the move.
In a way, those Irish were missionaries, weren’t they? In humble, simple ways, they built the Church here in America, and passed the faith brought to them by Patrick on to their children.
I’m sure glad Patrick went to Ireland; I’m glad one Patrick Dolan left County Cavan, starving, in 1851; I’m glad he passed on his Catholic faith to his son, Patrick, who then passed it on to Timothy Patrick, then he to William Timothy, who passed it on to Robert Matthew, who passed it on to one Timothy Michael Dolan, who now is proud to call St. Patrick’s his cathedral, and who very much misses all of you as we’ll observe the feast day Sunday, of the one who went on the move and brought the faith to Ireland.
So, Pope Francis is in great company as he moves from Argentina to Rome. That’s just how it is in the Church.
Viva il Papa Francesco!
Viva St. Patrick!
It’s called Domus Sancta Marta, the Latin for Saint Martha’s House, and it’s been my home the last forty-eight hours here in the Vatican, along with 114 of my brother cardinals.
You remember St. Martha, don’t you? She, along with her sister, Mary, and her brother, Lazarus, were among our Lord’s best friends, and he often enjoyed their company and hospitality at their home right outside of Jerusalem.
I do not exaggerate when I tell you that Jesus still lives here in this house dedicated to His friend, St. Martha. He has been here in our fraternity, our prayer, our laughter, our conversations, our meals, our shared faith, our mutual love for His bride, His Church, and now in our rejoicing with our new Holy Father, Pope Francis, who left this morning, and will move into the apostolic apartments.
As one of my brother Cardinals remarked, “We talk to each other with our different languages; we all speak to Jesus in the same voice.”
We came to St, Martha’s right after the magnificent Mass to Elect a Pontiff in St. Peter’s Basilica, on Tuesday morning. Each afternoon, and each morning, we took a little bus the quarter-mile distance to the Courtyard of Saint Damaso — – I’d prefer to walk, but it’s been rainy and damp — – there to disembark and walk into the Sistine Chapel for our duty as cardinal-electors.
The gardens and corridors of the Vatican were eerily empty. After all, the pope was no longer there. We “got the place to ourselves.” I always dreamed of spending some uninterrupted hours looking upon the walls and ceilings of the celebrated Sistine Chapel. Never did I think I’d be doing it this way!
One of the older cardinals, who went through the conclave of 2005, assured me I would sense the presence of the Holy Spirit in all of this. He was right. No, not in any brilliant rays of light, sound of wind, or tongues of fire, but in common and private prayer, oaths taken, words of inspiration, information, and encouragement exchanged, art and song working their charm, promptings sensed, and discernment going on.
And now the world knows the result of all this, as we have cheered the announcement, “We have a pope!”
It was all worth it. It is His (Jesus’) Church —- not mine, not the cardinal’s, not the Vatican’s, not ours, not even Pope Francis’ —- it is His Church! And upon the rock of Peter’s (and his successor’s) faith, He will build His Church.
Viva il Papa Francesco!
On this joyous day, I issued a statement in my role as President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the election of our Holy Father, Pope Francis.
Here is the press release:
STATEMENT ON THE ELECTION OF POPE FRANCIS
CARDINAL TIMOTHY DOLAN OF NEW YORK
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPSFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2013
The election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who has taken the name Francis, marks a great milestone in our church. As successor to Peter, our first pope, Pope Francis I stands as the figure of unity for all Catholics wherever they reside.
The bishops of the United States and the people of our 195 dioceses offer prayers for our new leader and promise allegiance to him.Intense prayer from all around the world surrounded the election of Pope Francis.
The bishops of the United States thank God for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the inspired choice of the College of Cardinals.With joy in our hearts, we declare “Ad Multos Annos!” (For many years!)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York
President
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
