Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:10 Hey, welcome back to another edition of Big City Catholic. I'm Deacon Kevin McCormick, and I have the privilege of being here on the Diocesan Podcast with Bishop Brennan. It's, uh, it's great to be back, bishop. It's, it's wonderful. I love what you and Father Chris are doing. I'm glad I can come off the bench every so often and, uh, be part of it as is. Uh, we usually do, Let's, uh, begin with a prayer. The name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Amen. Lord God, we have such difficult, crazy, wonderful lives that you put us in, and sometimes the work we do keeps us from the quiet. We need. Please give us the ability to hold on what's truly important in our lives, and let go of everything else. We ask this in your name. Amen. Amen. So, welcome, Bishop. It's welcome to your podcast <laugh>. It's great to be with you. Uh, but it's, it's, it's really kind. I, I love being able to spend time with you, especially in these podcasts. I had such a guess on the last one, and, uh, I'm glad you invited me back.
Speaker 2 00:01:02 I appreciate you coming back and, um, I always enjoy talking to you, whether it be on a podcast or working together, or even just hanging out. But, you know, I especially appreciate you being here today because I know this is a difficult week for you and for your family, But still a hopeful filled week. Earlier this week, you lost your mom after her struggles with help, she went home to the Lord Betty McCormick. We sure now is in the arms of God. And so I offered to you and joined with all of those who are listening and offering our condolences and our sympathies, but really sharing with you that sense of confidence and
Speaker 1 00:01:35 Hope. You know, we spent, Thank you. First of all, Thank you. And thank you to everybody who's been very kind to me. I really, from, from Bay Ridge to Montauk, people have been very, very kind and, and reached out to my family. My family's very much involved in the church. I have a nephew who's a seminarian. My brother is a trustee, and, uh, my other brother's very active in his parish in many ways. So the church is very much a part of who we are, and this is where the rubber meets the road. As a deacon, I'm at wakes every week, right? I journey with people as they say goodbye to their parents and more difficulty when they say goodbye to younger ones. My mom was 85 years old, and the last two years have been very, very difficult. And the last two months were really kind of signs of purgatory, the, the pain and the suffering that were there.
Speaker 1 00:02:16 So it was, it was a relief to her, you know, she said, I just can't do this anymore. You know, I don't have the energy. And, you know, it took her a few days to let go. And they, you know, they did the palliative care and she died peacefully without pain. But we really do believe that. And I don't know how you do it without it. We believe she's with my dad, you know, she's with her parents, she's with her brothers and sisters, and she's still a part of our life, right? And when I end awake service, I always say, I, I'm gonna give you homework. Pray for the person. We'll talk about prayer a little bit more in a minute, but pray with them. Life has changed, not ended. That's an essential part of the Eucharistic prayer at the resurrection, at mass of the resurrection.
Speaker 1 00:02:49 And life has changed, not ended. I said, if, if I was another domination, I would jump up and down and, and, and, and I said, But as Catholics, we tend to be subdued in that. But the message is so, so real. And then the third thing is tell the stories. And so that's what today and tomorrow will be about. Today is the wake, tomorrow's the funeral mass. And we'll be telling stories, but the beauty is none of us have all of my mom's stories. So my brothers have their unique thing, and we need everybody to come together to get that picture. Only the Lord and my mom know all the stories.
Speaker 2 00:03:16 Isn't that one of the graces of these days, this day that we're recording, later on, you'll join with your family for the wake. I found when I've been with family four weeks, you know, you know a person, but suddenly you start to see that person through other people's eyes and pieces of puzzles just start to come together. And you see a totality of a person, which is a great blessing.
Speaker 1 00:03:39 You see her from her whole time. So obviously I didn't know her as a little girl, but I knew her as a mom. And she had three boys, and we were kind of, you know, we were three boys in in the sixties and seventies, so she could be kind of rough. When my children think of nana, they say, Oh, she's so sweet. She's one of 'em saying, She was tough. <laugh>, we had wooden spoons and flipper. It slips flying
Speaker 2 00:03:59 <laugh> around,
Speaker 1 00:04:00 But then you hear the things she did with friends and her nieces and her nephews. Um, so it's a very special time. And it's also a time to kind of renew prayer. It's a time for us. I've spent a lot of time with the rosary. What a gift. I had to be with the, the pastors and yourself yesterday to have a holy hour just to sit in front of the blessed sacrament. I played, I said a rosary. I, you know, brought everybody to prayer. But again, you know, one of my I prayer I use all the time is, you know, help us hold onto what's important. Like, go of everything else because we are so busy. Yeah. Those prayer things begin to let us kind of just take that breath and kind of put things in focus. What am I gonna get upset about? Is it worth it? Most times it's not. And so prayer is an essential tool. If I could be, uh, a utilitarian on this, prayer is an essential tool to stay focused.
Speaker 2 00:04:45 It really is. Now talking, I wanna go back to you. I'm gonna be a little personal. Throw your curve ball. We're talking about the seasons of life. Um, these past months have been difficult, but there's also a sign of new life in your family, is that
Speaker 1 00:05:00 They're not, Yes. So that's very kind of you by the way. That's very, very kind of you. So, you know, it's, it's the best of times. It's the worst of times. So the, the last two years have been very difficult when my mom, but at the same time, about, I guess 10 weeks ago now, Jackson James Dempsey came into the world and he's my great, he's my grandson. He's my mom's great grandson. She got to hold him too, which is kind of a, a nice connection. The the kid's a goofy little kid. He's, he's 10 months, 10 weeks old, He can't do anything. But he smiles and he, he reminds us of the fullness of life, you know? So it's like, again, the prayer, hold on to what's important and let go of everything else. So the McCorick family, the Dempsey family, we've had the ability to, to see the end and the beginning at the same time.
Speaker 1 00:05:40 Yeah. And again, that's where the, uh, the symphony of life and the grace abounds is, is the balance of it all. So, uh, you know, we have this little kid that's nothing but promise, nothing but promise. And my mom, who fought the good fight, and now is time to rest from her, her race. And it's, it's amazing. Um, I'm not known for being like a lover of little kids, <laugh>, you know? But like, I'll come home and I have three daughters and a son, and the two, the two aunts, if you will, they fight over the kid. But when I come in, and if he's calm, I go give him to me. And we play for a little bit. And I, you know, I play for like a half hour, and then he starts a grimness. Then he say, Okay, now it's time to go back.
Speaker 1 00:06:16 But he renews us and he reminds us that part time here is very, very limited. You know, like I, I'd be very happy if I could guarantee 20 years more. Who knows? I mean, it could be a day more, it could be 30, 40 years more, but it's limited. But to see that God continually renews and he does it with Jackson, and he does it with my mom and everything in between. So it's an emotional rollercoaster, but it's very, I, I gotta, I know I should be far more professional, and I am a man of letters, but it's cool. It's just, the ride is wonderful. It's just a, it's just a cool ride. You could probably find someone who say it much more poetically, but it's a cool ride.
Speaker 2 00:06:52 I think you said it very, very well. For, for all of us. It really is. And this Sunday, as we come up to the weekend, we're going to be focusing in on prayer, both with Jesus's teaching in the parable. But I really love that image in the first reading of Moses,
Speaker 1 00:07:08 Right? Right. Holding his arms up. <laugh>, I'm holding his arms. You can't see this, but the two of Bishop and I both have our arms up in the air, you know, But what a great thing. And how important was it? He couldn't do it himself. That's right. So they needed nature to sit him down, his lieutenants to hold him up,
Speaker 2 00:07:23 Literally holding his hands, the arms, underneath the arms to keep his hands up in the air. And they, you know, they were fighting a battle. And the thing is, we're always engaged in spiritual battles and just the battle for life. I mean, sometimes it feels like every day can be a battle, right? Just getting through all the things we have to get through in the limited time that's in front of us.
Speaker 1 00:07:42 I also love the obnoxious judge. I give him different adjectives than usual, but it's great line. So you probably all remember it. Uh, it's in Luke's gospel again. Luke is just so rich. But you have a judge who fears not God and respect's not man. So, I mean, he, and he lays it out. There's no, there's no subtlety to him. It's right there. But there's a widow who badges him, who continues to badge him and to, uh, reach out to him. And he finally says, I don't care about her. I care about my own piece. Give her what she wants. And that image oftentimes becomes this idea. And we'll see it in, in, in social media. Let's storm heaven. Heaven will get no peace until we hear the answer we want. And while I, I, I love the image of that. I think they have prayer kind of backwards.
Speaker 2 00:08:26 Indeed, prayer eventually changes us. We don't change God, but it really connects us to desire what God desires for us. So prayer, it's a surrender. It's a turning over to the Lord. So yeah. He's not an unjust judge. Who cares? <laugh> not for man. But if that's how it is with somebody who is unjust, imagine the God who loves us and cares about us. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It's not that we have to badger him, but he's waiting for us. He's saying, Come on, <laugh>, bring it on.
Speaker 1 00:08:58 Yeah. I almost think, you know, taking from, uh, the hound of heaven where the judge, God is the widow who proceeds to badger and to pull at our heels and to constantly call to us. And that whether we go by desire or by relief, or by just giving in, we are the ones who capitulate to the nagging of our God. I love that image. And again, it goes so well with Luke, who constantly is twisting the image. It seems so easy. First, I said this last time we were together, Luke gives you a story. You go, Oh, I get it. And then you sit with you and go like, Oh, wow. It's 180 degrees different. It
Speaker 2 00:09:31 Is. Exactly. And you know, even prayer, the, our Father, Jesus teaches us to pray. If you think about it, that's a pretty scary prayer. If you really mean what you say, you're saying, you know, not my will. But that will be done. It's turning to the Lord saying, I'm giving you everything I've got. I'm giving you everything I'm worried about. But boy, I'd rather live in your world than in mind. Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 00:09:57 <affirmative>, I think of last Sunday's gospel with the lepers. They both in the first reading and second reading, Bishop Barron. And most preachers sneak into him first, that we get a little something from him, and then we move on to our own thing. He pointed out that we all have a leprosy. We all have something that holds us back, that keeps it as at a distance, like the lepers had to be with Jesus. And when we come to terms with what that is, the, the thorn in the side for St. Paul, then we can start to work with it. But we have to name it and say, Look, Lord, I, I'm holding on to this sin or this obsession, or this, this addiction or, or this wound, this anger. It's wounded. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:10:29 Dis grudge. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:10:30 And when we can give that to the Lord, that's, that's when the conversion happens. That's when we break down and say, You win.
Speaker 2 00:10:36 That's right. That's right. And, uh, you know, you don't mind my going back then even to what we were talking about with your mom making her way to heaven. The wake service, you know, this begins, or the intercessions begin, the ties that knit us together throughout our lives do not unravel with death. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so one of the things we as Catholics really hang onto is that promise of the communion of saints. We say it every time we say the creed. I believe in the communion of saints, that those bonds that knit us together, the love that knit us together continues. So like Moses has those lieutenants underneath holding his arms up. We have each other here on earth, and we have the saints, we have our loved ones. We you have your mom now in having talk about storming heaven, <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:11:23 Yeah, exactly. And, and we have the sacraments. The mass is such a, even for those who don't get to mass every week, those who find their way there twice a year or, or go only with when there's special family things. There's still a solace in that ritual, in that ceremony. But like we share at God's table, you know, in the best of time, in the worst of time, and, and everything in between. And so tomorrow, the mass is really, to me, it's the pinnacle of the ritual. It's sort of a mini treater win, uh, treatment, if you will. You know. So today is sort of like the, the Holy Saturday of the waiting, the preparing, the, the wondering, the second guessing. But tomorrow is the sign of the victory that we, we come in faith and we know that bread and wine is transformed and becomes the very presence of our God. And that is in the same way of my mom's life or anybody's life, you know, it, she lived her life, but every moment of it was a reflection of the grace that she saw in such a special way. Even, even when she was throwing the slipper or the wooden spoon
Speaker 2 00:12:18 <laugh>. Exactly. You know, when you talk about the wake, I always think of that scene. I always wonder, what was it like that Easter Sunday morning or an afternoon before Jesus appeared to as apostles? There they were, they were in that upper room. The door was locked. So they was still afraid. And I'm, I'm thinking it's not unlike the Wake service where they were gathered together, They gathered in prayer, but I can't help but wonder, were they reminiscing? Were they thinking about like, wow. Remember when he fed that crowd and or remember what he said to the woman who, who begged that her daughter be healed? You know? Or I bet they must have laughed a little bit too. I think they'll be a little laughing in, in limb today.
Speaker 1 00:13:03 Let promise you. That's our sacramental <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:13:05 But you know, man, remember that time that he called peter out on the water and Peter thought he was so mighty, and he's walking on the water, and then all of a sudden he looks down and falls in. They had a good chuckle, but they're remembering Jesus. Yeah. And in those memories, they remain connected to him, and then he appears to them. Yeah. He comes before them and says, Peace, shamo, peace be with you. Peace be with you.
Speaker 1 00:13:27 And, and that is the, uh, you know, people I hate wakes, they'll say that they have a purpose. It's acknowledgement of the end and a promise of the beginning. Right. Exactly. And, you know, I know my family will get on each other's nerves. I'm sure Simon and Matthew fought a little bit, you know, from their whole times, <laugh>. But there will be the laughter, believe it or not, I'm not the funny one in my family. My middle brother is. And, uh, that'll be Bobby's job. Bobby's job will be to make sure doesn't, things don't get too solemn. And he'll bring us back with a story or a joke, and we'll burst out laughing. And at the same time, we pray that the tears will never drown out the joy and the gratitude.
Speaker 2 00:13:59 Beautiful. You know, this week, speaking of the communion of Saints, we have a new saint on the books, you might say. I'm sure he is been in heaven a long time already.
Speaker 1 00:14:08 Just takes his time to realize
Speaker 2 00:14:10 <laugh>. Exactly. But, um, on Sunday, we had the canonization of Giovanni Baptist Scallopini, the founder of the Scallopini Fathers. Now the Scallopini fathers are present here in New York, in New York City and here in Brooklyn at St. Joseph Patron in that Bushwick Ridgewood section, and do wonderful, wonderful works. It happened to be one of the first parishes I visit St. Joseph Patron, because, you know, I came in at the very end of November and we had the closing of the year of St. Joseph a week
Speaker 1 00:14:42 Later. Right, Right, right,
Speaker 2 00:14:43 Right. So I was there for the closing of the year of St. Joseph, but that was my first real face to face meeting with Scali fathers. I've heard of them in all of that. But their founder was canonized this week. And he, like Mother Cabrini came from Italy, obviously was, you know, Mother Cabrini did her work here. He was a bishop in Italy and Pienza. But he founded this community to serve the immigrants here in the United States, sort of a missionary movement to, to care for the immigrants, the Italian immigrants living here, particularly in New York and Brooklyn. And so we are still blessed with the presence of the Scali fathers, the parish in Bushwick at St. Joseph Patron has a whole Scalabrini center where they do all kinds of work for immigrants. But you know what, you know, we still have that very strong Italian community here in Brooklyn. Um, boy oh boy and whole
Speaker 1 00:15:35 Metropolitan
Speaker 2 00:15:35 Area. And thank God we do the way my appetite loves the presence of the <laugh> Italian heritage here.
Speaker 1 00:15:41 That's two Irish boys from the Bronx. They understand. But you're right. And, and the gift that that threw the bishop's vision and his, the people who followed him Italian s as we celebrate on Columbus Day, their contribution to the church is immeasurable. And it's a great gift. And many, many great priests and bishops and lay people and who've come together and built our church, there's much thanks to be there. But they've been replaced.
Speaker 2 00:16:02 Right. There were new immigrant communities and many, That's the beauty of Brooklyn. You know, very often when you hear, and I say this with great love, but when you hear about, you know, an immigrant population, you say, Okay, yeah. You know, Hispanics. And like I said, great love, but boy, you look around Brooklyn, Hispanics are only a part of the picture. Sure. We have immigrants from all around the world for all continents of the world. It's a beautiful mix. And one of the inspiring things when we had the priest conference was seeing the priests, the priests come from all around the world, but just seeing all of our priests sitting together at tables in the refractory, in the seminary, in Huntington, um, each table was like a little United Nation. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So like, it wasn't that we were all in little pockets, but really coming together. And I see that in so many of our parishes here. It's not like you have Irish parishes, Italian parishes, Spanish speaking parishes, Chinese parishes, but you know, we have a heavy Chinese population. You also have a strong Hispanic population
Speaker 1 00:17:03 Sure. In Brooklyn. Right, Right.
Speaker 2 00:17:05 Sunset Park. Sunset Park, um, Regina Pache, founded by the Italian community, has a large Chinese population and Hispanic population among others, St. Michael's in flushing all the different languages. So, which
Speaker 1 00:17:18 May be the most difficult place to travel in the world, <laugh>, if you ever tr I've gone there three times since I've been the superintendent. And every time I go, it's an adventure. Look, traffic's one thing. I get it. Like coming to the co cathedral, you get it, it's gonna be traffic, but it's a pretty much a straight line. St. Michael's is this like labyrinth in a midst of a pu It's whenever I get there, I just kiss the ground. Like remember John Paul saying John full second. Yes. As he gets out the plane, he kissed the ground. When I go to St. Michael's, I kiss the ground. <laugh>
Speaker 2 00:17:45 <laugh>, you know, it's just a great story. It's part of our heritage. It's who we are, and we celebrate it. We proclaim it. But we think of saints like saying Giovanni Baptista Scalabrini and Mother Cabrini, Har Feas in February. And the great effect right here in this New York area, the profound effect that these saints had in the building of, of the church that you and I inherited mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But now too, we realize we pick up the baton and we do our part. You know, last time you and I were together, we spoke about the refugees who are approaching our parishes in great numbers. It's partly the immigrant community that's saying, We've been there, we're ready to help, We're going, you know, provide the needs. But you were with me yesterday when you mentioned the Holy Hour with the pastors, but we had the meeting and some of the pastors told the story of the reality in their own parish in each place. It's a little bit different because it's based on the shelters that are there. But wasn't it just so moving to see the pastors reaching out to one another, saying, Okay, what, what do you need? How can I help? Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:18:48 Well, you have, you the pastors, I mean, there are guys, but you know, they represent you out there. They represent the Lord in a sacramental and in a personal presence, but they're superheroes. Yeah. And they're human. See, the thing is like, it's easy for me to beat on a pa say, Oh, you know, father so and so wouldn't let me do X or he didn't take my call, or he didn't return. And look, all those guilty charge, they're men, they're frail who live a real life. Yep. Yeah. But the, the challenges that they have, the things that are expected of them, and I've always been, but even now, more is a constant theme. When when you speak in this apostolic age, in this need, nobody gets a free pass anymore. You know, when we were kids, the church we were in had a free pass. You were the church. You could do anything and literally anything. And now we're in a place where now we have to, we have to fight to get people's attention. We have to fight to, to, to remind people why we're here and these guys are doing it. You
Speaker 2 00:19:34 Know? And as I said to them yesterday, they're on the front lines. You know, I come in visit and, um, I'm thrilled to be part of the life of the parishes, but I'm sitting in office and I have like a coordination mo try to see people together, but they're right there on the front lines, meeting people in their need and pulling together with their parish teams to do what has to be done. You know? So there's the meeting, the needs of the immigrants, Actually, even apart from that, just people who've been here a long time are find people who were making it are finding it hard these days. Sure. Yeah. They, they're finding hard, keeping up with, with the cost of living and all of that. So the pastors are priests. Um, and, but when I say the pastors and priests, because that's where my connection is, but really the parish teams, because they, there's a whole parish team, whole school team, Right. And everybody kind of steps up and steps up to the plate and responds, um, uh, with the heart of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 00:20:32 Yeah. I'm very proud of my brother Deacons. I'm proud of our principles and our teachers, uh, the sisters and the brothers that are still here, their numbers have diminished, but their enthusiasm and their ability to do work has not. And that's, see, that's the beauty of the church is it's like St. John, it's everybody. It's the vine, the branches in St. Paul, it's the body. We all have different responsibilities, but we work as one body of Christ. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:20:53 And, you know, Thank you. You mentioned the deacons, as you know, the roots of the deacons are being in the community and being attentive to know what the needs are, to be attentive, to pick up where the needs are, You know, like the Greek speaking widows and the, uh, Hebrew speaking widows and the acts of the apostles. But to bring that to the church and to, and to respond in service. And again, I see that here. That's such a powerful tool and really in our dnet, because we have deacons again, from
Speaker 1 00:21:21 All over the
Speaker 2 00:21:23 World. Yep, yep. And they're in the communities and they're hearing, they see the need and they're hearing the needs and bringing that and responding with heroic service. So you're right, it's that. And the religious, we have so many religious communities here, um,
Speaker 1 00:21:38 And usually they're older, so they have Moxi, you know what I mean? They don't <laugh>. They could be, we know sisters in their eighties that are doing the work that people in their twenties would find exhausting. Right. So
Speaker 2 00:21:48 It's amazing. So, so thank God for those people who, who are on the front lines and are working in, you know, again, St. Giovanni, Baptista, Scallopini, St. Mother, Francis, Savior Cabrini, pray for us and help us in our work. Help us to be attentive and to respond with the heart of Christ. Thank
Speaker 1 00:22:06 God for Catholic Charities. I mean, the work that they do, we just, you know, if we want to give shout outs, the parishes are wonderful, schools are wonderful, but Catholic Charities, they're working with it all. And that's, uh, I, I worked for Catholic Charities for about 14 months, a million years ago before I, I finally committed to education. And I saw the work that they do, and I was working out in Suffolk and, and I saw the, the, uh, the migrant workers and the people we worked with there, and Nassau County and Suffolk County. There's such a, and it's true with Brooklyn and Queens as well. You know, you can go one neighborhood where, you know, people are making, you know, a quarter of a million dollars and that's, that's the low end of the neighborhood. And then you go like five blocks later or or two miles over the other side, and there're people who are barely living on their basic sale. So that mixture of everybody and the ability for us to reach out, we're not perfect. Like, we make a lot of mistakes and, and there's a lot of things we, we drop the ball on, but we don't, we don't stop trying, you know, we're constantly out there. We're taking swings. We're doing the best we can.
Speaker 2 00:22:59 That's right. And so we didn't get to talk much about baseball. Sorry,
Speaker 1 00:23:04 My mom's death was enough. Something.
Speaker 2 00:23:06 Well, <laugh>, so for a Met fan, but the Yankees continue, at least as of the time of this taping. Um, so we'll enjoy the October season as it is. In the meantime, we do commend your mom, Betty McCormick, to the hands of God. Let's return to the Lord with tremendous thanksgiving for all the people who touch our lives. Lord, we thank you for those who love us in their own ways. Show us your face. We thank you, Lord, for all the opportunities you give us in this life and that you keep us attentive to, to see those opportunities and to see your presence with us, Guide us on our journeys, and help us by the living of our lives to proclaim you in all things, to encourage and with, with patience and love through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:24:02 You blessing. We kind of look forward to that.
Speaker 2 00:24:05 Okay. Thank you so much for being with us today. Male mighty God bless you, The Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Speaker 1 00:24:12 Our podcast has ended. Let us go in peace.
