Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Welcome to the latest episode of Big City Catholics with Bishop Brennan. My name is Deacon Kev McCormick. I'm the superintendent of schools for our diocese, and I want to welcome everybody for listening and thanking them. Bishop, it's always great to be with you. Very much so.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: It's always great. And especially now as we're sort of at the beginning of a new year, a new academic year, a new pastoral year. I hate to see the end of the summer, but there's something about September that's fresh and new and exciting.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Well, let's begin with a prayer and then get right into this. We're always in the presence of our God as we begin. In the name of the Father, of the Son, of the Holy Spirit, Lord God, you renew your people at all times. And here, as we begin this fall season, this school season, we start anew. Keep our eyes open to the grace that abounds in all that we do, and let us move forward to help our children and our teachers, our staff, our principals, our benefactors, and all of those involved in our schools, for families included, to be open to what you need us to be. And we ask this in your name. Amen. I will tell you, Bishop, this is my favorite time of the year. And my wife, who, much like you, kind of mourns the end of the summer, does not want to hear me singing. It's the most wonderful time of the year, but it is for me. I love the new beginning. You start from scratch. You begin to go. You stand on the shoulders of what was, but you see the possibilities of what will be.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: And even then, it brings a certain amount of returning people, but a lot of new people, whether it be faculty and staff turnover, but even just in the students themselves. You know, in the high schools, for example, every September, there's a quarter of the population is turned over. You know, so there's a nice blend of the new and the old. But we're all starting fresh together.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: And even the old ones, they're different. So a sophomore in high school is different than a junior in high school, and a fourth grader is different than a sixth and seventh grader. It is about renewal. Bishop, you're 100% right. And there are so many great things happening. Look, we know what our concerns are. We could go through that. But why? Let's look at what the focus is. The focus is that God has put us in this time and place to bring the gospel to these children so that they can go forth and kind of make the world a lot better, which we'll be talking about in a few moments we desperately need.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely. So what's the general gist as we begin the new school year? Last week I had the celebration, the mass with the principals. I got that same sense from them. Sounds like we're starting with a healthy opening.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: We are. And look, there's always concerns. We're always looking for teachers. There's always this, that, or the thing to be worried about. But the key thing is that our leaders, our principals and their teams, they understand why we're there. The bottom line is that God's graciousness will not be outdone. And sometimes we need patience. But God will provide, always has. This year should be no exception. I'm always excited about the new possibilities.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And one of the things, obviously, the shadow. We're going to be talking about the shadow side of things a lot during this particular podcast. But one of the things with the shadows that really looms over us is the terrible terr act of violence in Minneapolis, the shooting there. Anytime we hear of something like that happening, it's absolutely horrifying, and we hear it too often. But even there, statistically, our children are absolutely safest within their schools. This is just an awful event, but it's a reminder to us where do we need to enhance safety and all of that. So, again, safety's definitely a priority for us all together, but for every one of our principals, our pastors and school.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Administrators, and it's not done serendipitously. Every one of our schools, grammar schools and high schools, as well as our colleges as well, we have strategic plans for crisis. We have. We have security programs. We're constantly moving forward in helping out, much thanks to a man like Vinny Lavienne, who helps us out, connecting us with the police force. They're going to be there this week. They're going to be there. They're always a phone call away. We have some great, great things that are happening. And the fact is, is that most people don't see it because you don't see the errors that weren't made.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Right. You don't see what's been prevented.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: I think that's really important to remember that many times either things are thwarted or discouraged or just the atmosphere is such that, you know, children are safe.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: Doors are locked, visitors are checked. Virtually all our schools have some sort of security guard. We've done everything that we can do, and we continue never to rest on our laurels, but to continue to be focused on what we can do better. And that's why we speak with the nypd, that's why we speak with the fire department, that's why we speak with the experts on this.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: And you know what? That's something I want to highlight. I am incredibly grateful for our relationships with the NYPD and the FDNY and all of the city agencies. We have really servant minded public servants here in Brooklyn and Queens, as in the rest of the city of New York, who go out of their way to work with our schools and our parishes and our different institutions so that we can live our lives and do so safely. And we have a great partnership with them. Even some of those school safety plans, it's with the advice of the help.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: They've reviewed our community leaders of police, community affairs, people. We have a lot to be grateful for. Again, always on the lookout, always on the move, always reexamining what we are doing and can we do something differently or better or even adapting to some of the terrible things of the times. But we are grateful for what we have.
[00:05:18] Speaker A: Two quick things. Many. I don't know the exact number, but many of the police and fire department, including the chief of police, they're alums of our schools. They were in those seats. And the second thing is that we're constantly revising these plans. So plans that we made 10 years ago are completely antiquated. We constantly update. Here's the bottom line, as you point out, Bishop, we're as safe as we can be. We're always vigilant, we're always looking forward. But when you look, statistically, our children are safer here than they would be on the ball field. We have to trust in God. We have to do the best we can. But, and I'm not saying but because we have to worry about this, but we know evil's real.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: And that, I think, is something we need to talk about. Quite honestly, you know, the reality of evil. Events like this point it out. But also, every morning I listen to the news radio just to get the headlines of what's going on. And I'd say just about every day we're hearing stories of violence. And many of them are among children, young people against other young people. It's sad. And then in the case of the fellow from Minneapolis, I mean, wow, you're talking about deranged. I mean, this was pure evil. There's no other way to put it. It's just pure evil. Whatever you want to call the motive. I mean, I'd use the term diabolical. And it's a reminder that the powers of evil are very much at work in our world when you look at it.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: I looked this up before we talk, but St. Augustine, when he talked about evil, he said evil was no thing. Not that it wasn't nothing, but it was the absence of God. And there is right now a nihilism or nihilism in our society where emptiness and broken hollowness, the hollow men, if you will, which we saw in this shooter, the emptiness of this shooter, where they could imagine that this action was a positive thing. That's a gymnastics of reason to think that this was an option, that this was reasonable from his level, obviously not from ours. It's not reasonable. But that person thought it was. And that emptiness, that, to me, Bishop, is an epidemic of the brokenness of our society right now. It's not so much that these ideologies that we have to fight against, it's emptiness we have to fight against.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: Exactly. The emptiness is fed by this cesspool of violence and darkness and hatred. Some of it comes about in the dark social media. I'm not talking about, you know, people posting silly things. That has its own issues, but, I mean, there's a corner of it that's incredibly, incredibly dark, even satanic.
[00:07:43] Speaker A: Why do you think it's attractive? That, to me is like. So, look, I get you might want to talk about football or baseball. It may not be my thing, but I get it. But the evil, the brokenness, the horror, the horror.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: I don't get it. Is it such a deranged view of yourself and then it's just saturated with messages of violence? Is it the gaming culture again? Same thing. What I remember when my nieces and nephews were playing video games, it was, you know, Madden.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Right, right, right.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: Madden Football. You know, where you Madden Football.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: We played Pong.
[00:08:15] Speaker B: That's right.
And Pac Man.
[00:08:17] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: And now Pacman was pretty aggressive where the bigger figures were eating up the little figures, you know, and getting bigger. But there is a culture that's incredibly dark. I remember now this. This isn't about the nihilism, but I think it applies. When I was in Rockville Center, Dennis Dillon, the late attorney general, oh, he worked a lot with us.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: Friend of ours, he was a friend of the church.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: We would go into a surge in the gang violence. Mississippi 13. I had different contacts to. I used to the same mass in the prisons in Nassau county on the first Saturday of the month. And so he and his staff would talk with people who are working in prison ministry, but also with the clergy, with. With community leaders to two Things maybe three that he said. One is that for young people, the most dangerous part of the day is between 4 and 6 because so many families are required to have both parents working or single parent families. And they were on their own, you know, during those hours. And the thing is, when you're in a negative kind of an atmosphere, like whether it be in school or out in the schoolyard or something like that, whether it's bullying or just fear or the violence that feeds on itself, the gangs would recruit somebody and say, we'll protect you. We'll look out for you. And then they'll say, but now you have to show us loyalty. And they expect somebody to commit an act of violence.
And now that you've done that act of violence, we own you because you know, you can't go to the law anymore because you're bad, you're evil.
But it's the best place to be right now because we can protect you. The best we can offer you is some kind of protection. I think there's something that in this culture of evil that says to, whether it be a younger person or an older person, you're no good. And nobody really does care about you. Even though there are people in your life who are probably trying to. To care for you, trying to do things for you, and that the world is in such bad shape that we'll take care of each other. We're evil together, you know, but then, you know, I own you because you're evil. And I think there is something of that in the culture. You know, you said evil being nothingness, nihilistic. When the world, when everything in your life lacks meaning, when you start to dislike everything, school the people around you, the society we saw in that manifesto, and I just saw clips of it, which was chilling. But, you know, hatred of everybody and everything, maybe some of it's in. Even in the rhetoric of society that's, you know, everything that you don't agree with is evil.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: The duality we set up, that if you and I disagree on something, I immediately can take away your personhood.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: I also think, and we spoke about this previous to the recording, is there have developed three privileges that society gives, especially to these younger people who are desperate to be filled that emptiness. My heart is restless until it rests with thee. I guess the Pope has big influence is what we're using.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: Everybody's quoting Augustine. That's good. That's very good.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: A vacuum will not. It has to be filled.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:20] Speaker A: And the three privileges I've been playing with the last few Weeks is first, the privilege of apathy. I don't have the energy. I'm not going to get involved. I'm not going to be.
[00:11:26] Speaker B: It's not going to make a difference.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: And the second one is cynicism. And I think, Bishop, cynicism is a cancer. And we find it in the guys that we work, guys and gals we work with, whatever ministry we're in, whatever business we're in, whatever our families are like. There's always the one cynic. And to me, why I think cynicism is a sin is because it denies hope, it denies the possibility of something better. And then the third one is the worst. It's the privilege of despair. What it means is, for us, Good Friday ends the story, and it doesn't. It's an essential part of the story. It's a crucial part of the story. We recognize Good Friday a lot more than we do Easter Sunday. But Easter Sunday is the final word. But that's the key. We are an Easter people. And in our day, that was like a hip, kind of like a slow way line.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: But you rise up.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: So for those of you who's a certain age, you understand that. But the fact is, is that the Lord is risen. And let me just throw a story out. I recently found this story about a painting called the Checkmate. And in Checkmate, there's three characters. There's a serpent, there's an angel, and there's a poor soul who seems to have lost the game. And the implication when you look at it is that the person played Satan for his soul. He lost. So the story is. And Micah, very quick, a chess master, saw it. He was intrigued by it. He saw something that you and I would not have seen. And he stayed with it. And he looked and he looked. And the person from the group that he was with said, you know, sir, we need to move on. He said, I want to show you something. And he look at the painting, and now it's a painting of despair. He's done. But the chess master says the artist knew something you don't know. The king has one more move. And I love that thought. The king has one more move. It's not the end. So we look at these kids.
They're broken, their families are struggling. There's an emptiness. They fill it with whatever they can. Junk food is better than no food. Bad reality is better than no reality. They fill it with it. And then they're caught in, like, I can't get out. But Bishop, the king's got one more move.
That's our job. We do it at our schools, we do it in our churches. We do it with spiritual direction. We do it. We have to be people of hope. Not by apathy, not by cynicism, not by despair.
[00:13:30] Speaker B: Exactly. And you know, I think that kind of guides our way forward. The king has won more move. You know, to a certain extent we're engaged in a spiritual battle, however you want to name it, but it is a spiritual battle and we have to choose a side and we have to align ourselves. Well, we choose to align ourselves with the king, but that really does mean taking on the armor of the king. And it sounds kind of militaristic, but it's very real and it's very biblical. A lot of talk about the role of prayer in, in all of this. And you know, I'll admit some leaders have said some stupid things, but even there I kind of get what they're trying to say. The fact of the matter is that prayer plays a very important part in this for a couple of reasons. First of all, prayer is that armor of the king. It's aligning ourselves with the Lord.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: But Bishop, am I trying to convince God? Like does the lord need Kevin McCormick to remind him to take care of us?
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Absolutely not. Like you say, he's got another move and he knows what that move is. And we, we don't. But what it is doing is, it's, we are aligning ourselves with him to a certain extent in the world in the day to day prayer, you know, lord, help me with this test. It's basically saying thy will be done. What we're doing is we're asking the Lord that our will be transformed to conform more with his will, which by the way is life, justice, mercy, hope.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Empty tomb.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: The empty tomb. But there's more because it's basically is we're setting up the sides. What we're saying is I'm in solidarity with the Lord. We step in in solidarity. We're not working on our own. The model for it is Jesus himself. Jesus and the Father are one. But even here on earth, how often do you see in the Gospels that Jesus steps away to pray, especially before he does anything. And it's basically being one being in solidarity, being one with the one.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: So prayer becomes a way, if I'm hearing this right, of kind of removing the distractions. It's not so much I'm telling God what to do, but I'm allowing the smudges on my lenses to be clean so I can see the Lord's presence.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: And act and act. You know, secondly, there's a biblical aspect to it. It goes along that, with that, wiping away the smudges. Because the biblical side, I love the prophets and there are so many things I love about the prophets. But you'll often see this idea of that spiritual battle and the necessity of aligning with God rather than with human alliances. One of the ones I really enjoyed is a great scene that I love in the prophet Isaiah. And it kind of leads to that whole prophecy about the virgin shall be with child. Okay, so basically using the Pac man image, all the nations around Israel and Judah, the two Jewish nations were, were, you know, acting out and kind of swallowing each other up. And the big ones were getting bigger and everybody's looking for alliances.
And when the king heard about all of these other alliances and that the armies were on the move, there's a great line, it says that the hearts of the king and the hearts of the people were shaken, just like the trees in the forest are shaken by the wind. I love that Isaiah says, unless your faith is strong, you will not be strong.
And basically Isaiah advises the king, don't enter into mere human alliances because those are shallow and fleeting and self serving prayer helps us to see things in a different light. That we enter into more than human alliances, that our first trust is where God is leading us. And then we make those political or we make those diplomatic, whether on a grander scale, decisions with a certain prudence. Because the smudges that you talk about that get wiped away are often somewhat egotistical, they're often somewhat self serving, they're sometimes protective and defensive, and they're sometimes a little bit ambitious and antagonistic. But prayer can purify those because our first trust is in God. And then when we enter into, then when we talk about, you know, efforts at making peace, efforts of dialogue, those are so important. But we do it with pure hearts. In the wake of the school shooting, for example, just like with any kind of mass violent act, our hearts are particularly torn with schools. But we see these things happen in other venues. So in shopping malls and work sites, there's often the need for conversation about gun safety and gun laws, enforcement. We got a bunch of laws, mental illness and steps at security. Those are all very important conversations. I would never say that any one of those is not important. Every one of those is important.
But unless you have people of prayer entering into those discussions, that's why people of faith, it's so important that we have people of faith stepping into the political arena, stepping into the affairs of the world. People of faith need to enter into those kind of conversations in a spirit of prayer and a spirit of humility so that we don't become focused on one of those things as a political advancement. Here's a way that I can push my agenda on gun control. Here's a way I can push my agenda on enforcement. Here's a way I can push my agenda on mental illness. You know, we can easily as human beings devolve even in our reactions to these things into self serving, so called solutions. We have to have these dialogues, they're so important, but they have to be rooted in something bigger.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: It starts with the fact that I can respect the fact that you and I may have a disagreement and a perspective. And I think that's that adds to that emptiness. So we've gone really full circle here. And we're looking at one part. We're looking at the beginning of the school year and all the joy and the excitement that comes with that. And I always remember like having my. I had my fall clothes but it was still hot. Like I was always upset that I couldn't wear whatever corduroy.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: What a Roy. That was another time, my high school years.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Yes, but at the same time we're preparing our kids, whether they're pre K kids or graduate school. We're working to create young women and men who have the ability to see beyond the opaque lenses that we're given and to see the fact that grace abounds. That's a big thing we say all the time. And that Catholic imagination to see God in the midst of it all. What would have happened with that person who did this heinous act if there was something filling that void other than the noise and the self indulgence and all the different things that come with that? I think Bishop, with the prayer also, we need to pray for that person. It's not very pleasant.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: We need to pray for him, for anybody who's living in that darkness. And you know what? We need to pray for their families in a macabre kind of way. Last week I was recording the podcast on Wednesday with Father Chris Henyu and Father Joe Zwaster. I was talking about prayer and it was a zoom call. So there I am, I have my iPad open and I'm getting all these pop up texts about the shooting in Minneapolis. It was like while we were recording a message about prayer for peace, it was like really, really strange. Now as the whole thing unfolds and we see things I've heard criticism of his mother, of his family. Why didn't people see the signs? I just saw it. Another possibility.
What if maybe she did see the signs and she's been screaming for help? We both meet so many families that are just overwhelmed by somebody really struggling and have tried everything, maybe even not the best things.
[00:21:19] Speaker A: But they tried.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: But they're trying. They're trying to find it's a real cross. And then when you get people into adulthood, you even lose whatever power or authority you might be able to exercise that nihilism when nothing matters to somebody, even the best efforts of a parent, it's too much. Doesn't matter.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: The greatest prayer of our church is the Eucharist. Through the gift of the priesthood, we gather together at the same altar. We receive the body and blood of Christ, taken from very mundane pieces of bread and sips of wine. But it's the community that comes together. We both love the rosary. We carry our rosaries. We say our prayers sometimes by touching the rosaries. You've spoken to our students about that often. But the community praying together is the greatest prayer. So it's not just me. And sometimes as a parent, you think you're alone, no matter if the kid is 6 months old or the kid is 60 years old. But the fact is, is that we are a community. So I am there to help you bear your cross, and you're there to help me bear mine. And that to me, I think this young person had lost the way as far as knowing they weren't alone, but they thought they were, and this is how they responded. Our schools are eucharistic centered. Our priests are always supporting us. Our faculties are there. We have kids. They'll spend their few moments in quiet prayer with their classmates in front of the Blessed Sacrament. And that's common in our schools, is it cure things. It's not magic, but it allows the kid to say, there's so much more than meets the eye.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: You know, Deacon Kevin, I'm glad you said that, because I think this kind of brings us really that full circle again. Over the weekend now, we're going to celebrate the canonization of two young saints.
When Carlo Acutis and Pier Giorgio Frassati are canonized, it's going to be a moment of real excitement and joy for the church. I know our young people are already gearing up. They've been gearing up. We have all kinds of events so that people can celebrate here. But the message of Blessed Carlos, now soon to be St. Carlo and St. Pierre Giorgio Frassati, is a reminder of those signs of hope that you and I see every single day in our students and our parishioners. I see it in our religious ed programs. I see it in our youth programs, our youth ministry. When I was at the Jubilee for Youth, I was so touched by the young adults who traveled with us. When you look at our young people, there's so much to be proud of. These are lights of hope in the world. You know, again, we're spending a lot of time talking about a very small segment of the population, very concerning, and we have to love them and pray for that small segment of the population. But that doesn't define our young people. Carlo Kutis, Pier Giorgio Frassati. They define our young people.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: They have a great love of God and God in the sacraments. They have a great love of. Of God in the face of the poor. So we want to finish on that hopeful note and really recognize the young men and women who are in our parishes, in our schools and academies, in our religious education programs, and in our youth ministry, and really encourage and thank all of those families, professionals, volunteers, who help to shape, inform and bring that goodness out.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: As I like to say, it's what we do.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: It's what we do, and prayer is what we do. So why don't we finish with that spirit of prayer? Lord God, we ask you to bless the year that we undertake and help us as we do grapple with the problem of evil. Let us never sink to despair, but always recognize the signs of hope in our midst. And as we pray for our young people who give us that hope, we ask your blessing. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness and gratitude. His peace and may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and your families and remain with you forever and ever.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Amen. Amen.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Please join us next week for another edition of Big City Catholics. And please keep in mind, we do have that day of prayer for peace. We'll be praying for peace on September 15, feast of our lady of Sorrows. Please look at our diocesan website, our diocesan media, and tune in next week. God bless you.
