Recently in Archdiocese of New York Category

The Congregation for Saints has told Bishop Octavio Cisneros, an auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn that the Servant of God Felix Varela's cause has been accepted by the Pope as a man of heroic and cardinal virtue. He will be given the title "Venerable Servant of God." Cisneros is the vice-postulator of Varela's cause.

This afternoon, Palm Sunday 2012, His Eminence, Edward Cardinal Egan, JCD, preached Solemn Vespers and Benediction. He was the final preacher for our Sunday Vespers highlighting Great Preachers.

The other day I mentioned that cardinals receive a church in Rome for them to have pastoral solicitude for and to be a parish priest in the Diocese of Rome. The latter is really a fiction because the cardinal rarely has much to do his parish but this a vestige of a time when all cardinals were resident priests of Rome. Cardinal Mahoney never paid too much attention to his Roman church but Cardinal O'Malley shows up to his when he's in Rome. 

Fordham Law School's Institute on Religion, Law & Lawyer's Work hosted Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan, PhD, for an inaugural address in the Law and the Gospel of Life series. 

Sadly, it didn't make the news, well not much was said around the area about it. Fordham University published this brief press release read here. The crowd exceed initial expectations and a change of venue was made. Cardinal-designate Dolan centered his comments on Blessed John Paul II landmark encyclical, the Evangelium Vitae (1995). An excerpt of Dolan's remarks follows, below is the link to his entire text:

The Gospel of Life proposes an alternative vision of law and culture, one that provides an antidote to the pragmatic nihilism that produces a Culture of Death. It seeks to recapture the essential relationship between the civil law and the moral law, and to foster a culture in which all human life is valued and authentic human development is possible.

The Wall Street Journal published an op-ed piece of New York's Archbishop, Timothy Michael Dolan, today. You can read the entire op-ed piece of Archbishop Dolan here:  WSJ-ObamaCare-and-Religious-Freedom.pdf

An excerpt follows:

Coercing religious ministries and citizens to pay directly for actions that violate their teaching is an unprecedented incursion into freedom of conscience. Organizations fear that this unjust rule will force them to take one horn or the other of an unacceptable dilemma: Stop serving people of all faiths in their ministries--so that they will fall under the narrow exemption--or stop providing health-care coverage to their own employees.

The Catholic Church defends religious liberty, including freedom of conscience, for everyone. The Amish do not carry health insurance. The government respects their principles. Christian Scientists want to heal by prayer alone, and the new health-care reform law respects that. Quakers and others object to killing even in wartime, and the government respects that principle for conscientious objectors. By its decision, the Obama administration has failed to show the same respect for the consciences of Catholics and others who object to treating pregnancy as a disease.

Timothy Michael Dolan, PhD

Archbishop of New York

Wall Street Journal

25 January 2012

Timothy Michael Dolan, PhD, Archbishop of New York and President of the US Bishops' Conference will deliver a lecture entitled, "Modern Questions, Ancient Answers: Defining and Defending Human Dignity in Our Time" on Tuesday, December 6, @ 7:30pm inaugurating a new venture of the University of Notre Dame called "Project on Human Dignity." There will be Protestant and Catholic responses by Ann Astell and Gerald McKenny.

As you know, the Pope is meeting for next several months with all the bishops of the United States. Two weeks ago I noted the Ad Limina Apostolorum of the New England bishops; this week the Pope meets with the New York bishops and next week he'll be meeting with the New Jersey and Pennsylvania bishops. His reflections and leadership on key areas are crucial for all of us to pay attention to right now for the good of the Church. The text of his address to the bishops of these three regions is given below.

I greet you all with affection in the Lord and, through you, the Bishops from the United States who in the course of the coming year will make their visits ad limina Apostolorum.

Our meetings are the first since my 2008 Pastoral Visit to your country, which was intended to encourage the Catholics of America in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of recent decades. I wished to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the victims and the honest efforts made both to ensure the safety of our children and to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise. It is my hope that the Church's conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same standards.

You can read Archbishop Dolan's presidential address in its entirety elsewhere; here I offer a few points from the address to reflect upon:

...our most pressing pastoral challenge today is to reclaim that truth, to restore the luster, the credibility, the beauty of the Church "ever ancient, ever new," renewing her as the face of Jesus, just as He is the face of God. Maybe our most urgent pastoral priority is to lead our people to see, meet, hear and embrace anew Jesus in and through His Church.

Because, as the chilling statistics we cannot ignore tell us, fewer and fewer of our beloved people -- to say nothing about those outside the household of the faith -- are convinced that Jesus and His Church are one. As Father Ronald Rolheiser wonders, we may be living in a post-ecclesial era, as people seem to prefer

a King but not the kingdom,
a shepherd with no flock,
to believe without belonging,
a spiritual family with God as my father, as long as I'm
the only child,
"spirituality" without religion
faith without the faithful

Christ without His Church.

You are invited to a screening of CATHOLICISM with ArchbishopTimothy Dolan's introduction and a presentation by project's creator Father Robert Barron, and Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete.

A reception and book signing following the event.

Presented by Crossroads Cultural Center and Word on Fire

Click here to RSVP

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

President, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete

Author, theologian, columnist

Father Robert Barron

Author, speaker, theologian Founder of Word On Fire.

MORE INFORMATION

This event is open to the public and free of charge, but seating is limited.

Tickets must be obtained online through www.catholicism.eventbrite.com

David W. Dunlap of the NY Times wrote a piece earlier today, "Firefighters' Names Endure in St. Patrick's Towers," talking about the legacy of the firefighters in the iconic St Patrick's Cathedral. The article is a nice remembrance of those who inscribed their names following the 9/11 tradegy. Thanks to Msgr. Robert Ritchie and others who are committed to keeping the graffiti intact.