Tag: Archdiocese of New York

Archbishop Dolan prays for Giussani, thanks Communion & Liberation, gives us the logic of Lent

Tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of death of the great priest and founder of Communion & Liberation, Monsignor Luigi Giussani. More on that later. However, the NY community of Communion & Liberation gathered at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral for the Sacrifice of the Mass celebrated by the Archbishop, Timothy M. Dolan. Among those in the sanctuary were Bishop William McCormack (retired auxiliary bishop of NY celebrating 51 years a priest today) and Bishop Gerald Walsh (NY auxiliary bishop and rector of Saint Joseph’s Seminary), Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, Carmelite Father Eugene and Father Daniel O’Reilly with the seminarians from Dunwoodie and the collegians from St John Neumann Seminary Residence.

A few times in the course of the Mass and following, Dolan expressed his gratitude for the presence and witness of Communion and Liberation in the Archdiocese of NY. Today’s Mass joins many others around the USA and in others parts of the world praying for Giussani and for the good of the movement. See where Mass is being offered here.

Jesus is tempted.jpg

In his homily, Archbishop Dolan reminded us of the deadly sins that cut us off from God, the Church community, others and ourselves. The gospel for today (Lk 4) is a stark reminder is that the Lord was tempted, but didn’t capitulate to the temptations demonstrating a supreme trust in His Father. This he did by speaking of the Logic of Lent: the pilgrimage during the season of Lent is a movement away from sin and sinful tendencies inching toward life with the Trinity, the living God. In order for us to live holiness of life we need to live as those Christ matters, as though the truth the Church teaches does, in fact, set us free. We are made for communion, interpersonal relationships first with God and then with each other; selfishness and pride divides us. Ultimately, we have to take seriously the Scriptural warrants for life with God: purity of heart, humility of personality. The Christian life is not “my will be done,” but it’s the other way around, “Thy will be done, God.’
How do we decapitate sin? How do we live more intently this time of faith in Christ?
The 3 ancient Christian practices:
1. Prayer: the posture is the recollection that without God nothing is possible
2. Penance: self-denial to curb the human drive to disordered pleasures
3. Charity: mercy and self-gift as acts of love to live in a dignified way as God wants us to live.
When we do our part in self-emptying ourselves of sinful tendencies, God does His part in giving us what we need: true and lasting happiness.
The proffered the hope that Msgr. Luigi Giussani would be made a Doctor of the Church. I hope the Archbishop’s words were heard in heaven!
A 12th century anthem was sung at the Preparation of the Altar at Mass, “Ave Regina Caelorum,” musically arranged by Gregor Aichinger. Typically this hymn is sung after Compline from the feast of the Presentation of the Lord until Holy Thursday. A version of the text in English follows:
Hail, Queen of Heaven!
Hail, Mistress of Angels!
Hail, root, hail portal,
From which the Light for the world has Risen.
Rejoice, glorious Virgin,
Beautiful above all others.
Farewell, most gracious,
And pray for us to Christ.
A fitting reminder of the beauty of Mary, Mother of God and her role as intercessor for us before her son, Jesus. May she also intercede for Msgr. Luigi Giussani and for Communion and Liberation.

Dolan calls for a truce: don’t mall each other at Christmas

TMD.jpgToday the NY Daily News published a letter written by Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York. I am happy that the News published this letter because it is not only a message for Christians, but people of faith, and those looking for the gift of faith. The substance of the Archbishop’s letter can be summarized in this way: this is a time for peace among peoples; for love and reconciliation. And even though not all go about observing this season in the same way, we ought to respect one another! 

Christians, particularly, are preparing themselves to welcome the Prince of Peace, the Wonder-Counselor, the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, into their whole being. Others will be observing Chanuka and still others will just try to live the best they now how.
While faith-neural language like “holiday parties,” “Seasons Greetings,” or “holiday sale,” can get annoying, even ridiculous, our attention ought not to be exclusively on how “others” are removing Jesus Christ from view at this point of the calendar. Sure, some of our brothers and sisters are frustrated by this move away from our Christian roots. I am, too. However, I am not giving more power to those who agitate to rid the world of Advent & Christmas.
So we need ask ourselves, is the frustration worth it? Is letting the secularization of our Christian culture “get to us” giving more power to the forces of the faith-neutral ideologues in our lives than need be? If so, they’ve won. Reasonable people of faith and good will won’t think of Christ being removed from our hearts or families or the work place by anyone but ourselves. We can’t blame others for everything. So, the Archbishop’s call for a truce on all that distracts from the real meaning of Advent and the forthcoming Christmastide is well-taken.

I, for one, am going to get back to listening to “Christmas at Ephesus,” the recent album of Christmas hymns recorded by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of the Apostles. Perhaps I’ll pray the Joyful mysteries of the rosary.

Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman: 42nd anniv. of death

Francis J.Spellman.jpgThe Archdiocese of New York recalls the service of one of their prominent churchmen, Francis Joseph Cardinal Spellman on the 42nd anniversary of falling asleep in the Lord.

O God, Who did raise Thy servant Francis Joseph Spellman, to the dignity of priest in the apostolic priesthood, grant, we beseech Thee, that he may be joined in the fellowship with Thine Apostles forevermore.
A sketch of his life:
Life: May 4, 1889 to Dec. 2, 1967
Ordained priest: 1916
Consecrated bishop: 1932 (served as auxiliary bishop of Boston 1932-1939)
Appointed archbishop of NY: 1939
Created Cardinal: 1946
For more, see…

Archbishop Dolan’s “Not Fit To Print” NYTimes Editorial

One assumes that The New York Times would have been glad to receive an Op-Ed article from the new Archbishop of New York. The Archdiocese of New York is responsible for a very important part of the city’s educational, medical, and charitable life. The newspaper refused to print it. Such censorship only whets the appetite to know what was thought not fit to print. There are many items that the Times, which claims to publish everything that’s fit to print, has printed although they were not fit. There were, for instance, its mockery in 1920 of Goddard’s hypothesis that rocket propulsion can take place in a vacuum, a denial of Stalin’s forced famine in Ukraine and a whitewash of his show trials by its Moscow bureau chief Walter Duranty, its advocacy of Fidel Castro, and its benign regard for the Soviet spy Alger Hiss. So there had to be some journalistic equivalent of a cerebral stroke to make the editors of the Times unable to print Archbishop Dolan’s words.

The cause of the apoplexy was the Archbishop’s imputation of bigotry to the newspaper. His charge was not self-indulgent whining. He did not have to go back farther than a couple of weeks for examples. First, in reporting widespread child abuse in Brooklyn’s community of Orthodox Jews, there was not the “selective outrage” which animates The New York Times against criminous Catholic clerics, whose numbers are in fact proportionally much smaller than other religious and professional groups. 

Then there was the sensational front-page publicity of a paternity suit involving a Franciscan friar, going back twenty-five years, and getting more space than the war in Afghanistan and genocide in Sudan. Headlines also claimed that the Pope was seeking to “lure” Anglicans into his fold, when in fact he was responding to a petition. Then a columnist invoked the Inquisition, portrayed the theology of priesthood as neurotic sexism, and even mocked the Pope’s haberdashery. The Archbishop said that her prejudice, “while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850’s, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.” While a free press is free to criticize, said the Archbishop, such criticism should be “fair, rational, and accurate.” 

Hostility raised to such a pitch that journalistic standards are abandoned, is provoked by an awareness that the Catholic Church continues to be the substantial voice for classical moral standards and supernatural confidence amid the noise of a disintegrating behaviorist culture. A tabloid is still a tabloid even if its editors dress in tweeds. Churchill said, “No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.” Not to worry. Christ promised that the gates of Hell will not prevail against his Church. He did not include The New York Times, 30% of whose work force has been laid off in the last year and a half. 

Fr. Rutler’s Weekly Column as Pastor of the Church of Our Savior in New York City. This is from the November 8, 2009 bulletin

Dolan’s Catholic Crusade

I would not have used the word “crusade” to describe responsible Catholic leadership but it does grab one’s attention. The recent interchange between Archbishop Dolan and Maureen Dowd (and the NY Times) is not all that interesting: most with-it Catholics know and understand the archbishop to be correct in his assessment. The thesis is not original to the Archbishop. A book length exposition on anti-Catholic bias was done by Philip Jenkins in The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (OUP, 2003). Jenkins explores the liberal anti-Catholic bias and the reasons why many just accept it while the same can’t be said in the Jewish and Muslim communities.

So, one can barely say that Dolan’s criticism is newsworthy. EXCEPT to say that his pointing out in a rather public way (thanks be to God!) that Dowd and the Times is in fact, anti-Catholic, and this type public engagement with the press hasn’t been done too much in since Cardinal O’Connor died in 2000. Remember, O’Connor regularly spoke to the press, especially following the 10:15 Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Patrick. His successor, Cardinal Egan, didn’t much engage the media when he was the archbishop of the Capital of the World.

Take a look at Joseph Bottom’s piece in the NY Post today.
Read Archbishop Dolan’s comments on his blog, The Gospel in the Digital Age

Al Smith dinner at 64

Al Smith.jpgLast night the 64th annual Alfred E. Smith Foundation dinner was held at NY’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It is a fundraising dinner (with the pretty people in attendance). Monies donated at this dinner support a variety of NY charities concerning medical care for the poor, children and under served. The beneficiaries are all very worthy works of charity (mercy).

Admiral Michael Mullen, USN, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was the guest speaker.

This was Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan’s first Smith dinner since beginning his pastoral leadership of the Archdiocese of New York.

Watch the only media coverage of the dinner…

Cardinal Terrence Cooke: 26th anniv. of death

Terrence Cooke.jpg

Twenty-six years ago today God called Terrence James
Cardinal Cooke, 62, to Himself. Under the motto of “Thy Will be Done” and at
the age of 47, he was nominated archbishop of New York, succeeding Cardinal
Spellman. The Cardinal lived his life in dedication to the Lord, often quiet
and formal. His cause for canonization was introduced in 1992 and named a
Servant of God by Pope John Paul II.

Almighty and eternal Father, we thank you
for the exemplary life and gentle kindness of your son and bishop, Terence
Cooke. If it be your gracious will, grant that the virtues of your servant may
be recognized and provide a lasting example for your people. We pray through
Our Lord Jesus Christ your son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen.

To everything that gives life and love the Church says Yes!

You know, the church is the one who dreams, the church
is the one who constantly has the vision, the church is the one that’s
constantly saying ‘Yes!’ to everything that life and love and sexuality and
marriage and belief and freedom and human dignity–everything that that stands
for, the church is giving one big resounding ‘Yes!’ The church founded the
universities, the church was the patron of the arts, the scientists were all
committed Catholics. And that’s what we have to recapture: the kind of exhilarating,
freeing aspect. I mean, it wasn’t Ronald Reagan who brought down the Berlin
Wall. It was Karol Wojtyla. I didn’t make that up: Mikhail Gorbachev said
that…I guess one of the things that frustrates me pastorally is that there’s
this caricature of the church–of being this oppressive, patriarchal, medieval,
out-of-touch naysayer–where the opposite is true.


Archbishop Timothy Dolan, New
York Magazine