Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome back to another edition of our Das and podcast big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Das and bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, Father Christopher Henyu. We're happy that you're joining us again each and every week for our new edition, we begin in prayer. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Bishop we're nearing the end of June, coming into the early days of summer, or actually in the days of summer.
[00:00:46] Speaker B: I mean, yeah, summer came early this year, and unfortunately, school is still in session for a good part of it. I know the New York City public schools went right up through this week.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:00:55] Speaker B: And had three or four days this weekend.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: I said they had a lot of days off early on. I mean, obviously, we had a federal holiday, Juneteenth, which is a noble thing to celebrate the end of slavery here in the United States. But I think there's something called the chancellor's day.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: And then there was a teacher formation day. And I thought to myself, you know, I bet they wish they went to school those days and had these days off, because this is. Summer is really, really in full swing very early.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: You're right, you're right. And yet, although you think things should be winding down, they're not. And the liturgical year doesn't allow it either. We've had some very, very big feast days these coming weeks.
[00:01:31] Speaker B: We do beautiful days, and we celebrated the feast of John the Baptist. I went to the parish of St. John the Baptist on Sunday, and it was a wonderful experience. I should say the full name. It's lady of good counsel, St. John the Baptist. It's a Merris parish. But they had been working, talk about church renovations for 20 years, renovating the church, there was a lot of damage on the outside, a lot of things that needed to be renovated for preservation's sake. And so this is a project that's long been happening. It's an interesting thing. It's a church within a church.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: That's right. It's wild.
[00:02:06] Speaker B: It's amazing. So the original structure still stands, but the ceiling would need too much work and would have been prohibitive. But they built the structure of a smaller church, which fits the needs of that local community inside. And they did the work on the exterior to do the long term preservation. Some work with the rose window they're doing there. But the other thing, and this is a great lesson for us as we're looking at our reality today, this was a big center of vincentian spirituality here on Lewis street. The vincentian fathers began their mission. They began the parish. The parish was. The vincentian parish of the university has its roots there, because that was the first seminary in Brooklyn, Brooklyn. Priests were formed by the Vincentians at that spot. There was the university, St John's Prep, I think there was a grammar school. It all had its beginnings. And there's a big plaza there. I saw some of the original pictures. Very noble. But you know what? They adapt to the needs of the time. And so St John's University moved to a different location. The seminary moved to a different location. We had ours, diocesan seminary. St John's Prep is now in Queens. And they adapted to what the community needed. They walk with people who sometimes are struggling as a parish. They have outreach to those who are poor, not only among them, but even beyond them. St John's University opened St John's Bread and life associated along with them in that neighborhood. So, you know, it's a great lesson because it's not a dying community, but it's an evolving community. And many of the works has continued to flourish. But in sites nearby, the mission there is just phenomenal. But it all has that sense of vincentian spirituality, the vincentian charism. A while ago, they merged with Our lady of good council. You have an english speaking community, a spanish speaking community, and all of the parishioners came together to celebrate the thanksgiving and the blessing of this church in anticipation of the feast of John the Baptist. It was just amazing.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: And one of the blessings for, like, building that smaller church within the larger church is they've created, outside of the doors of now, that interior church, sort of like a church hall. A church hall.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: So they had a little reception in there, but the reception was in there and also outside. Now, I think it was in the nineties, but people did go outside. Well, the choir that sang at the mass, they were phenomenal. They also did praise and worship music outside. It was a real celebration in every sense of the word. Hats off to them. They did a great, great job. But it was celebrating also the feast of John the Baptist. And, you know, John the Baptist, what a great role he played, pointing to the way of Christ. It's not about us. John didn't point to himself, but he points to the presence of Christ. And that's what we do as parish communities. We point to the presence of Jesus Christ. Right. Living within us, but revealing him to the world.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: So we celebrated on Monday the feast of the birth of John the Baptist. First of all, not too many saints get two feast days, and not too many saints have a birthday. I think it would be Maryland and John the Baptist.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: And of course, the Lord himself. But that's it. So we celebrated the birth of John the Baptist because his birth was a moment. It was a real crossroads in history, the old covenant and the new covenant coming together. So we celebrated John the Baptist. We're celebrating this weekend on Saturday Saints Peter and Paul.
[00:05:27] Speaker A: And, you know, speaking of the actual parish community of Saints Peter and Paul, this is another example of a parish in our diocese in Brooklyn and Williamsburg that has also adapted to the needs of the community. It was a church that was really dilapidated, was restored into another edifice. So now the church, instead of having interior church and a larger church, now you have a church in a school building with an opera hall and all that's there. So adapting to the needs of the community, that's just to speak of the.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Parish community itself, not the saints themselves, that's change, right? So we adapt, but we learn from the saints, we learn from the saints how to meet the needs. So that's actually a good example, because isn't that the story of Peter and Paul?
They brought the gospel at Jesus command. They brought the gospel to the ends of the earth. And so they met people, they listened to these people, they found out what the needs were, and they brought Jesus. They brought Jesus. You read the acts of the apostles, and it's an amazing story to see how the work of the Lord continued. The risen Lord was continuing his work, not just in Jerusalem. And if you look at the twelve, their first instinct was, despite what Jesus said, their first instinct was stay put in Jerusalem. But the Holy Spirit push them out.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Stay put or hide until that great blessing.
And of course, recognizing in both of these men their fragility, their human weaknesses, their doubts, their fears. But then with the help of the Holy Spirit, with the grace of God, to be able to bring witness to Jesus into his church. Bishop, we also have a feast day coming up that's dear to your heart, right? Our lady of perpetual help.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: It's dear to my heart at several different layers. So I have a great devotion. That was my home parish, and so I always had a great devotion to our lady. Perpetual help. The image, the icon of our lady perpetual help is a great story. You see the baby Jesus in her arms, but it's almost as if he leaped into her arms. You could see the sandal falling off of his shoe, and she's holding him with that maternal love. And in the background, you see the signs of the crucifixion and the passion of the Lord, and it's that Mary is holding him tight. And you see the humanity. You see a child growing up, a child facing fears. To say that Jesus didn't have fears isn't true. And that's not even all that virtuous. It's how we face the fears. And that's what he did. He was bold. He was able to face them. But, you know, he grew up as a child and was held tightly by Mary in her arms, giving comfort and encouragement. So we, too, find our comfort and encouragement in her. And this year, as I've done really, since I've gotten here, I'll have the chance to offer a mass at our basilica of our lady perpetual home, the haitian community. Big feast day for the big feast day for Haiti. And of course, we know this year has been a terrible year and continues to be terrible suffering in Haiti. The gang violence that just took over in the absence of a central federal government and national leadership. And so we pray. We pray for Haiti. We pray for the people, especially in the capital area, where a lot of the violence takes place. So it'll be a great blessing to be together.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Do you know if the mass will be in the upper church or the lower church of the.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: The mass is in the upper church. It was at least last year, so I would imagine it's a massive church.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: It really is one of those buildings that you can see for miles from the BQE. And it's incredible. It's incredible.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: And, you know, that basilica is really the home of the Redemptorist. We're thrilled to have the work of the Redemptorists here in Brooklyn and the work that they do, and they themselves have been great missionaries from there to around the world.
[00:09:10] Speaker A: Speaking of missionaries, speaking of movements, certainly religious orders, but also lay ecclesial movements in about two weeks or so is a big celebration for the neocatecuminate way.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Yes, the neocatecument way, and they're very vibrant here in Brooklyn and Queens. Priests serve in a number of our parishes, and they work in small communities that exist all around. We have the Redemptoris Mater seminary, and a good number of our seminarians are part of the neocatecuminal way. And it's sort of an exchange, you know. So we have vocations from Brooklyn serving in other places, and we receive men from other places coming to serve here in Brooklyn. They serve as Brooklyn priests, and it's that sense of missionary being sentence. So I'm glad that we have their wonderful priests and Seminarians, and I love the community. I was familiar with them when I was in Long beach. There was a community there. And so they're celebrating 50 years in the United States, and that's on July 7. And the beginnings are right here in Brooklyn. It was a Brooklyn priest who welcomed them in a Brooklyn parish. So that was 50 years ago, and that celebration now is going to take place right here in Brooklyn. Earlier I had heard it was planned in Newark, but I just got word that they changed. But that's part of the neocetic human way. They adapt to things very quickly.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: They get the message out.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: I'm still waiting to hear all the details. The latest I heard is they're going to be at the Berkeley center. So it's supposed to be a very, very big event. We'll see what emerges out of that. That same day, I'm going to be present with the bengali community earlier in the morning. So that's taking place at Mary Lewis. So even though, even though it's summer, some things slow down, but life just keeps on picking up.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:10:55] Speaker B: It's good. It's great. Life is, yeah, life is interesting and fun.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, we had a chance to talk about really that idea of missionary spirit, and I think this week you had a chance to meet with Father Jack Wall, who's the director of catholic extension.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Jack Wall and Julie Turley. They came to visit me and to talk about their annual event at the Metropolitan Club in New York in the December. Now, Anderson, you've gone to that.
[00:11:21] Speaker A: I've had opportunities to be present at this gala. It's probably their biggest gala of this year, I imagine, at least in the east coast. They may run them in other parts of the country, but it's incredible to support the good work that they do. We have a number of groups in our church, especially here in the United States. I think we have Catholic near East Welfare association, catholic extension, and then certainly the pontifical missions, etcetera. They work in their work, and a.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Lot of the work of the Catholic Extension Society is right here in the United States. And their mission is to build vibrant catholic communities among the very poor in different parts of the United States, in rural territories, among some of the immigrant communities, in all kinds of areas going to some of the poorest and neediest areas. And where they have great success is they gather the Catholics together and they build these communities that they themselves then are missionary, that they themselves are proclaiming the truth of the gospel and the new life that we receive in Christ. So they have great experience. And, you know, through Father Charlie Keeney, who had been the director of the propagation of faith, I got to know them a little bit more. I had always known of them, but he really was a great believer, great fan. And they do these mission trips with priests, introduced diocesan priests to the work of the mission. So they have these very short mission trips and maybe like three or four days where the priest would go and take part, maybe do some work in some of these missionary communities again right here in the United States. And the priests come back and wow, they find it transformative. About a year and a half ago, the society hosted a dinner for some of our priests with the idea of just inviting some of those who had gone, inviting some others who might be interested in making that trip at another point. And that's when I learned a lot more than I had even learned. So it's great to celebrate that there's that missionary spirit among so many Catholics. As you say, so many mission societies doing great work.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: And I guess in wrapping up our podcast today, just recognizing that that call to missionary zeal is still very, very much necessary. And it doesn't mean that we have to go to China or parts of Latin America, really just being that missionary in our own society.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: On Sunday, I'm going to ordain one of our transitional deacons. We had four men ordained as priests and they'll begin their work this week in parishes. On Sunday I go to the Cathedral of St. James and I'll be ordaining who will be Deacon Harada, one of our seminarians who's studying at St. John XXIII, a seminary for, when I say older men, I mean still young men, but maybe in their thirties, but for later vocations. Their practice is to be ordained when they get back, to be ordained in their home diocese, and then when they go back, they function as deacons. The other members of that class will be ordained in November at the seminary in Dunwoody. And so please God, we'll have seven priests being ordained next year.
[00:14:30] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So Gerardo will be ordained in the summer. Paolo is studying in Rome, he'll be ordained in October, and then the others will be ordained at the seminary in Dunwoody. So it's a big year ahead. Of us as we look ahead, we're going to be celebrating the Eucharistic Congress, the National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis later on in July. And what's important about that is that brings us then to a new phase because it's sort of the culmination of all the local revivals. But now with this congress, we about making ourselves eucharistic missionaries. So now the next task of is to have that missionary spirit to proclaim the truth of the love of God and the presence of the risen Lord Jesus among us, and to take what we experience, what we receive in the Eucharist, and bring that to the world and bring it right here in Brooklyn and queens. Absolutely announce it. So the next phase is about ourselves being transformed into missionaries.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: That's right. That's right. Well, Bishop, we're sort of the last week of June here. We're going to be celebrating July 4. You think that that's going to be a quiet week? It's not going to get quiet.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Filling in very quickly.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Filling in very quickly. Well, please God, you get some time to take some rest. Well needed for all of our sake. Right. But perhaps you'll give us a final blessing.
The Lord be with you and with.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Your spirit on this weekend, especially through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul. May the Lord bless you and fill you with zeal, that you may proclaim his gospel boldly, joyfully and unapologetically. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever and ever.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Amen. Thank you, Bishop. Thank you all for joining us. We hope that you'll join us again next week for another edition of our podcast, big city Catholics. God blessed.
