Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome back to a new edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn and Queens, myself, Father Christopher henyu, here at St. Joan of Arc Parish in Jackson Heights. We are always grateful that you join us each and every week. We begin always in prayer, calling the assistance of our Blessed Mother upon us, our diocese, and all those in need. The Father, Son, and 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.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: In the name of the Father, Holy Spirit. Spirit.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: Bishop, when we were last on, we were talking a little bit about your upcoming trip to Peru. It's now a past tense trip. It's been in the past. You're home safely. Thank God. How did everything go?
[00:01:02] Speaker B: It was a wonderful experience, a very, very impressive experience. So for me, on a personal level, it had all kinds of elements. So arriving early in the week gave me a few days of prayer and reflection. So they had conferences. This was a gathering, an annual gathering of the St. James Society. It's a beautiful, very simple retreat house. It looks like any retreat house, but it's nicely located. It's like on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. And it's a place of rest. They've had it for many years. And it's used as a little bit of a respite for missionaries. You know, they're out in the field, and then this is a place they can come either for a day off or for some renewal or where they can gather them for prayer and reflection. So this was a gathering of current missionaries, some past missionaries who come back to visit. So the first couple of days were spent in conferences and time for prayer, but it's also a reconnection for me with some friends, including Archbishop Henning. Now the St. James Society comes under his care. It's an extension of the Archdiocese of Boston. And so a few days of prayer that kind of led into some devotional experiences. I to visit some of the older churches, the cathedral, the Franciscan Church, but the Dominican Church, where St Martin de Pours and St Rose of Lima and St Juan Massiel are all buried, some of the key figures in the early saints in the Americas. Really, those visits were just incredibly, incredibly moving. And of course, I made some connections on personal level, praying for our own Martin de Porres Parish and continue to pray for the intercession of Monsignor Quinn. And then that was followed by a weekend in the missions. It's the St. James Society and we spoke about this last week. It's diocesan priests serving in the missions for period of time. And our own Bishop Daley, the late Bishop Thomas Daley, who preceded Bishop Dimasio, was a missionary in the St James Society. So I had him very much in my prayers while I was there. But the ones that we visited were really urban missions and basically surrounding the city of Lima. You have these barren mountains, they look like rocks and people by the thousands just build homes. And they're not really homes, they're like shacks on these rocks to be nearer to the city to provide education services for the children. But it was an eye opening experience and just to see the devotion of the missionaries. And just a nice little vignette I mentioned. Bishop Daly, his brother also was a priest of Boston, Father Vincent Daly, and served in the missions. And I met these two brothers there who are serving with the St. James Society in Bolivia, but their local vocations from Bolivia and they were sent to the seminary by Bishop Daly's brother.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Oh wow.
[00:03:56] Speaker B: Monsignor Daly said to them, I'd like you to give it a shot, Try it, see if it's for you. You know, there's something here. He saw something in them. He said, give it a shot and if it's not for you, you'll know it and at least you'll have given it a try and you'll know that you tried. You know, my worked out. And sure enough, these fellows have been serving for years now as priests and missionary priests in their own country. It was very, very moving to see all of that mission work and to see that, you know, there aren't as many, but there's still some very dedicated missionaries working out in the rough part of the field. Our own Holy Father, he was not part of the St James Society, but he himself was a missionary in Peru, working out in the field, solidarity with the people who are living there, entering into the daily hardships of life and bringing the good news of the gospel. So we're very fortunate, very grateful for those missionaries who are doing such incredible work. Part of it is it's a work for all of us. We try to do what we can to support missionaries with prayers and donations and they by extension do us the favor of being out there in the field and doing the work. So my hat's off to them. So that, that was a really good experience. And you know, mentioning Martin de Porres, I took the equivalent of a red eye back On Sunday, Sunday night really, it was a Monday morning flight 1205 and landed in JFK. And then we had the Martin Luther king Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas in flatlands. Another great uplifting experience.
It was a long flight, but I'll tell you something, it's waking up in the same time zone.
It's a lot easier to get used to it. But again, we had the Martin Luther King Mass and that very, very well done. A Benedictine monk. He was 26 years a monk, but he's three years a priest. He preached at the Mass, but a lot of apparitions from the very different parishes around Brooklyn and Queens made it on a very cold and icy. It wasn't snowing, but the effects of the snow were there.
And people made a point. They got there. So it was really very uplifting.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: There's a great article about that Mass in this week's edition of the Tablet, speaking a little bit about this monk that you mentioned as a homilist and really trying to inspire the next generations. Right.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: The younger generations to stand up with the same fight for dignity and for justice.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: And we see such great work with that here in Brooklyn, Queens with, for example, the ambassadors and with various different youth groups. But the ambassadors are more on a diocesan level than rather than just a parish level. And these are young leaders and they serve at these functions in multiple capacities as altar servers and liturgical ministers, but also then continue to serve across the hall for the lunch. That ambassador program is about leadership training and certainly leadership training with the faith.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: It's great to see bishop. The week continues. It's just been a busy and blessed week for you. I mean, now we re enter into the cultural effects, the cultural realities of our diocese. So on Wednesday the 21st, you celebrated Mass with the mostly the Dominican faithful. Right. Dominican Republic faithful celebrating their patroness, our Blessed Mother of Alta Gracia. Must have been an exciting experience.
[00:07:22] Speaker B: It's very exciting. And Bishop Elect Mamo Jesus Rodriguez preaching at it makes the connection between Mary, the mother of all graces, all the graces that are poured out upon us and how we live again, the dignity of life right here that adds to the joy of the celebration. Our own Dominican born, but Brooklyn priest is being sent on mission to Palm Beach. And so it's a great day for rejoicing within that Dominican community here in Brooklyn and Queens.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: The realities of the diversity of our diocese, you can't hide. We've talked about it here on the podcast. Just the beauty of all all that's coming up. Even we're having our Migration Day Mass right, coming up in February, which should be a very exciting time where all of the different cultural apostolates come together for a Mass. But throughout the year, each individual one has theirs, such as Alta Gracia. We also recently had the Guatemalan apostolate with the celebration of Esquipulas with an incredible experience. And myself, if I could just plug this, of course, we're putting together as an Irish Apostolate, our second annual Mass in honor of Saint Bridget of Ireland to take place on Saturday 31st January. Her feast day is on 1st February, so it's hard to do that on a Sunday. So we've decided to celebrate on the 31st of January at the Coke Cathedral this year at 1pm a Mass, a second Mass in honor of St. Bridget of Ireland.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Well, you know, last year we got it kicked off on the actual feast day on a Saturday, February 1st. Now we'll have to go to the Saturday near. It's uplifting. We celebrate Saint Brigid and I give you a lot of credit for it as the coordinator for the Irish Apostolate because this is something you've wanted to do really to express the faith dimensions. So, you know, St. Patrick is certainly an example for us and it's a very faith filled experience.
But it gets sometimes overrun by the secular celebrations, sometimes in good faith. It is connected, there is a social part and I highly enjoy that. But unfortunately, sometimes too it gets a little bit away from the faithful part. And so you did this with St. Brigid Day, really to be purely about the Catholic roots of the Irish heritage.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: That's right. Last year's Mass was a great success at St. James Cathedral. And you know, we're hoping to build on that success, actually.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: So great a success we had to move it. This year we fit barely into the cathedral and then we couldn't fit into the hall. So hopefully we're moving in to bring even more people.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Please God. Please God. So those who are listening wish to come. All are welcome. And you can share the good news, share the invitation to all, especially the Irish. But you don't have to be Irish.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: We expose people to very many dimensions of our faith. This is, this is Brooklyn in Queens.
This is Brooklyn and Queens. The world is here, you know, on the feast of Alta Gracia. That has a triple meaning for me. So January 21st. So the first community that I was involved in when I was even learning Spanish was in St. Agnes parish in Rockville Center. And that was a largely Dominican community. So my roots in the Spanish language are with the Dominican community. So this day is special for me.
We usually celebrated it the Saturday before, but as it turns out, it's also the feast of St Agnes, who is the patroness of St Agnes Cathedral there in Rockville center, patroness of the diocese. And so for many years while I was living at St. Agnes was a solemnity, the feast of St. Agnes, because at the cathedral the patron feast is a high ranking feast, the solemnity. And over the years I grew to a great appreciation of St Agnes. So this day, the 21st of January, has always been a very, very special day. And you know, Agnes was a teenager who refused marriage to the son of an official in the Roman Empire, which would have given her great power life that was very comfortable. And she refused it because it would have meant giving up her faith and quite literally becoming part of the royal court and worshiping the emperor, the height of pagan worship. And she just refused. And this teenager, some 1700 years later, is still teaching grownups like us what it means to withstand peer pressure, whether it be, you know, the promise and allurements of riches and wealth or the wrath of an empire. I mean, they brought the whole wrath of the Roman empire against the 13 year old girl. And yet it's her memory, it's her memory that's alive. And this young teen taught us and teaches us even now, and just like our young people can really teach us too, a lot about how to follow the faith. So devotion, St. Agnes is important. But on the other end of life, I had the chance to celebrate with the Carmelite Sisters of the Aged and the Infirm. This is a special day for them, their founder, she's not yet a saint. She's venerable mother, Angeline McCrory. She was born on the 21st of January, she died on the 21st of January.
And her whole ministry, it started with her watching her mother care for her grandfather. And then when she was drawn to religious life, it was always with that care for the elderly in mind. And when she came here to the United States with the Little Sisters of the Poor, she kind of received permission to begin with six other sisters, a new branch, the Carmelite Sisters, to serve in the American the needs of the aged and the infirm. And so I was at Osingen hall celebrating with the sisters and with the residents there. And again, just some great faith people of great faith and hope living out their senior years. Some of them are there temporarily doing rehab. Some of them, it is their home, their residence. And you See the great respect for human dignity that is at play over there in Osnam hall, as it is at with the little sisters at Queen of Peace residence in Queen's Village.
[00:13:51] Speaker A: Yeah, Bishop, I was just thinking, even a lot of our topic last week, we were talking a lot about the dignity of human life and the value and respect given. And even today, really, as we talk today, a lot of what we talk about as a church can always go back to the root of the care for the human being. The fact that there are missionaries being sent from the States to parts unknown is because we care for the human being. The fact that the faith of our cultural experiences show us the care for the human, the recognition, you know, all that we've talked about. And today, even as you mentioned St. Agnes, you mentioned the Carmelites, the work that they do, it's again, because of the care for the human, the dignity of human life, the value of and respect that it's due.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: And, you know, just to stop right there for a second because I know there's a lot more coming on this, but, you know, just last month, the governor signed the euthanasia bill, which basically tosses out the respect for human dignity and says, you know, when a person becomes a burden, it's all right if they choose to commit suicide. And who knows where this is going to go. That was called medical aid and dying, and it's called dying with dignity.
Now, what I witnessed today is true dignity, true dignity. You treat people with love and respect. And this is my concern. Already states are in the practice of cutting back the support for this kind of care. And, you know, now with assisted suicide as an option, you'll probably see again, more regulation, but higher costs and less support, that human dignity is a problem at the end of life. And then from there, we come to the March for Life. And that's where we were talking about this a little bit. But you were about to say something about religious liberty. And it's a good point.
[00:15:48] Speaker A: We were just talking before we began this podcast of a recent victory here in New York State, conceding to that the Catholic institutions, Catholic dioceses, Catholic organizations and others of faith are not subject to the abortion mandates to paying for providing for their employees.
[00:16:08] Speaker B: This is an important moment. Yeah. So I remember this. I remember this legislation going through a little more than 10 years ago. I remember then Governor Cuomo and there was this big abortion expansion. It was really very burdensome bill saying you had to provide abortion, you had to pay for abortion, which meant you had to participate in the act of an abortion by giving monetary support, providing it, and insurance policies had to cover it. This was part of a major abortion expansion bill which has been expanded upon even again.
But basically it provided language of a religious exemption. But the language was so restrictive. I mean, I think if you weren't a priest or a religious, you probably wouldn't comply. I mean, it knocked out whole classes of people. It was very unjust. The Diocese of Albany began the suit. A few other entities were part of the suit. Catholic Charities of Brooklyn was part of the suit, but basically entered into a church plan. The church plan is not governed by that same law, but anyone who had a non church plan, any, any kind of a regular health plan, most entities wouldn't be able to afford that outside of diocese. It was, you know, hospitals and nursing homes and schools even.
So the Diocese of Albany began the suit and it went back and forth in the courts and it went as high as the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court remanded it back and said to New York State, you hear it again and you've seen the precedence of Supreme Court cases now, you know, do your job, interpret according to these precedents. And finally, after a decade, New York conceded that, yes, employees of Catholic institutions are indeed employees of Catholic institutions, and therefore we don't have to provide abortion as a medical right. You see, that's the change in parlance over the years. You remember the old words, not that they were good words, but you know, Bill Clinton making abortion safe, legal and rare to. Now it's trying to be enshrined into a right.
And, you know, and that right tramples on the rights of conscience of people who see in this a very grave evil, the taking of a human life. And going back to the assisted suicide, say, oh, again, it's. It starts off as, oh, no, no, this is what people, you know, just giving people a choice. But we've seen what's happened in the abortion world.
What starts off as a choice becomes a right that infringes on the rights of other people.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: You mentioned something last week, Bishop, I thought was very thought provoking. Is, you know, again, we mentioned the understanding the case of the slippery slope theory. And, and it is, it is exactly that. I mean, it takes time. But it, it starts, it started with the first, you know, recognition of the, of just the.
A disposable nature of human life. And then, then it slowly decays the foundations of the fabrics of our society, of the. The dignity of the human for being. And now 2025, we have governors signing the legalization of euthanasia. I mean, it's, it takes time, but it does. It slowly decays and decays and decays.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: This podcast airs on the day of the March for Life. And we're in Washington because this broad issue, in 1973, when the church raised these kinds of concerns about a slippery slope, when the pro life movement took up its course and said, you know, this is leading us down a very bad path, we were called alarmists. We were told the same things were being told right now. You're just exaggerating. This stuff will never happen. There'll never be any talk about euthanasia. There'll never be talk about assisted suicide. They didn't use that language at that time. But that won't be happening. And it's never going to be forced upon anyone. And here we are, 52 years later dealing with it. So, yes, the Roe v. Wade decision was overturned with the Dobbs decision. And even at the time we said, and the court said, that doesn't end abortion, it just ends that particular interpretation of the law. But we still live in a society where human life, unfortunately, is considered disposable. It's not valued. And that enters into, as we were talking about last week, into the mindset of life isn't sacrosanct life. It can be disposable. So that that is a mind change. So, yes, that brings us in to the March for Life. But, Father Chris, we have to end on a couple of good notes. We really do. So Sunday now, of course, we're watching the weather forecast.
It might be saying miss in a private chapel on Sunday. I don't know. I hope not. I'll be up over in St. Bartholomew in Elmhurst for Project Andrew.
And I'll be offering mass at 11:30, but the pastors in the area, like yourself, will be inviting young men to come and talk about religious vocations, vocations, particularly to the priesthood, and together with some priests who will share their experience of how they were called. And, you know, this is something we do on a monthly basis throughout the year in different parts of the diocese. But this week is especially poignant because we're coming into this beautiful set of readings with the call of those first apostles of Peter and his brother Andrew and of John and his brother James. And of course, St. James is our patron. The way that St. Agnes is in Rockville Center. St. James plays an important role for us as the patron of our cathedral. And so we hear the call of these fishermen out on the sea mending their nets. Matthew doesn't give us all the details that Luke gives us about Jesus commandeering the boat. But we see this genuine call where Jesus says it starts with Peter and then says to the others, follow me, follow me. I'll make you fishes of men. Follow me. But Jesus's first call, the first part of that call is, follow me, get to know me, listen to me, walk with me, see what I'm doing. And really that's the first call for all of us, is to listen to Jesus, to follow him, to. To let him lead us to be loved by him. And then, yeah, you know, to some, he'll say, and I'm going to ask you to be a priest, or I'm going to ask you to be a religious sister or a religious brother. To many, he'll say, I want you to enter into a holy marriage. Or I might ask you to live your life in the single state, but at the service of people. But the first call is, follow me, let me in.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: It's a beautiful opportunity. I pray that the weather will be cooperative, for.
[00:23:11] Speaker B: I do too. I do too. But we pray too for the second set, not only in that day, but of days like that. Coming up, Father Betsy, our vocation director, is doing great work calling people to discern the vocation. Not necessarily, you know, sign on the bottom line and enter into the Semin, but really just to consider, where is Jesus talking to you? You know, in this, you're sitting in the boat of your life, mending your nets, trying to figure out what. What next to let Jesus talk to you.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: And speaking of vocations, you recently had a vocations retreat, a weekend for a group of young men to go to Dunwoody, the seminary there, St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers. And seemed like was a great opportunity for must have been 20 or so men I saw.
[00:23:59] Speaker B: Yes, that's the Jeremiah Project. And then I'll be actually giving the ret.
March, early March.
So, yes, a lot of good things. And last year we had that vocation day. Not sure if we'll have it during Lent this year, but I'm looking forward to doing that again. So where we had the religious orders coming in, I think that was a powerful occasion. So we're looking forward to all kinds of good things. And then next week brings us into Catholic School Week and we celebrate our schools. Now this is going to be a little bit special for you because I can't wait.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Yes, we have a week filled with great activities. There's just such a joy that surrounds Catholic Schools Week. I realized just how much I missed it in the last few years not having particular school. We were of course affiliated with a School of St. Francis Vassisi School in Brooklyn. But now having my own just there in my own backyard. Preparing for a great week, kicking it off on 25 January this Sunday, highlighting the excitement and the beauty and I keep using the phrase life changing education opportunity that Catholic education is for our kids. You can see the differences to highlight that we've got some special visitors coming to the school as many schools are creating these invitations. We even have an opportunity to go and visit St. Bartholomew School for a middle school soccer like tournament for morning which should be very nice and it'll end with pizza. So they're, they're not only. It's not only an isolated event. I'm very much looking forward.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Looks like an exciting week to come in many, many different ways. Praying for good weather through the week and, and asking the Lord to guide us.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Please God. Well, Bishop, why don't we wrap this up and end with a prayer and ask for your for your blessing. The Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. And may Almighty God bless you, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Amen. Thank you, Bishop. And thanks to each and every one of you who join us every week for a new edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics. We hope that you'll join us again next week. God bless.
